There are many other factors that influence language popularity besides technical quality, like:
- marketing;
- big companies using it;
- familiarity;
- history of the creators;
- history of the influencing languages;
- timing;
- luck;
- regional usage;
- etc.
Despite some programmers seeing themselves as fully rational making cold decisions, we're like everyone else.
> The street cred of "hey, large company X is using it, it must be good" is also very important.
Yes, and also, "large company X is spending lots of money on it, so they aren't just going to abandon it once it's no longer the newest, coolest thing."
