We were used to building stuff in static, strongly typed languages. We had powerful IDE support, stable libraries, old and proven frameworks. There was always the right tool, the right library, the right idiom, the right way.

There was confidence and security in the well known world of stuff you already tried and built. The confidence that came from the knowledge of how difficult or easy something could be. The skill of estimation was fine tuned, and the feeling for effort was strong.

It was not the fact that nothing could go wrong that was comforting. It was the power to know what, when and where could go wrong.

An anxiety-neutral condition, with limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.

A true comfort zone.

Then we chose Node.js for a project. We are yet to see how wise a decision that was business wise, but it was certainly good for the soul.