Do you care what programming language to use?

I often think about reddit discussions, where someone genuinely asks how they can find a Haskell job, for example, and there are always people who advise against looking for a job based on the language (instead of answering the original question). I get it. I understand arguments for both sides, but I won't argue for either. Some care 80% of the time, some don't care 80% of the time.

A different way to look at this is from the perspective of mainstream vs niche programming languages. Because if you are obsessed with a programming language, you are likely obsessed with some niche, esoteric language. And if you are not obsessed, you are probably using something more or less standard; the good old "nobody ever got fired for choosing Oracle".

Those aren't the same, but bear with me. I'll repeat myself, not arguing for any side, I want to establish that there is a conflict: within a team, a company, a wider industry, wherever.…