You know that feeling when a sensory trigger instantly pulls you back to a moment in your life? For me, it’s Icy Hot. One whiff and I’m back to 5 a.m. formation time in the army. My shoulders tense. My body remembers. It’s not logical. It’s just how memory works. We build strong associations between experiences and cues around them. Those patterns get encoded and guide our behavior long after the moment passes.

That same pattern is happening across the software ecosystem as AI becomes a default part of how we build. For example, we form associations between convenience and specific technologies. Those loops influence what developers reach for, what they choose to learn, and ultimately, which technologies gain momentum.

Octoverse 2025 data illustrates this in real time. And it’s not subtle.

In August 2025, TypeScript surpassed both Python and JavaScript to become the most-used language on GitHub for the first time ever . That’s the headline.…