I clearly blamed a lot of things in addition to tooling in my post. My overall point, which I don't think you quite got, was that language choice doesn't matter so much compared to all those variables, and that I'm much happier and more productive now working in a less "sexy" language because of those other differences.

I think the only comment you can make is that, ceteris paribus, newer tech stacks indicate some awareness of newer ideas (who include agile / devops tooling). Old tech might, but also might not.

I'm more inclined to think that Palantir's problems are inherent to the enterprise revenue equation.

"Features and code quality that aren't contractually mandated" = profit

The more things you can put in that category, the more profit...

Newer tech stacks might also indicate chasing the newest/hottest thing without regards to long-term sustainability of the platform, however. You don't always want to be bleeding edge, as bleeding edge can easily be dead five years from now, whereas if you stick with a "boring" mainstream technology it'll still be around in five years.

True. But the enterprise shops I've seen tend to make the "not modern enough" error 20x more often than the "too modern" error.

Good engineers will naturally gravitate towards good tools. Therefore away from bad ones. Node.js is not a good tool. Therefore the quality of engineers using it will be poor and get worse over time. The same is true of MongoDB.

Good engineers will naturally gravitate towards good tools. Therefore away from bad ones. A hammer is not a good tool. Therefore the quality of engineers using it will be poor and get worse over time. The same is true of shovels.

Your example isn't making sense to me. Hammers and shovels are excellent tools. There's a reason they're some of the most commonly possessed and used tools world-wide.

Your example isn't making sense to me. Nodejs and MongoDB are excellent tools. There's a reason they're some of the most commonly possessed and used tools world-wide.

We could continue this all day. I can tell you're very inexperienced in saying specifically that a tool is bad. You'll learn as you grow in experience that even if you don't like a tool, that it can be useful for lots of other people in lots of circumstances. It may seem unbelievable to you, but when you get some more notches on your belt, you'll understand what I'm saying. Good luck!