For my part, I'm never interested in blanket comparisons of what language is faster, but it is worthwhile to mention specific features and how they impact perfo

For my part, I'm never interested in blanket comparisons of what language is faster, but it is worthwhile to mention specific features and how they impact performance. For example, in Python you can talk about the GIL and pointer chasing. But you can also talk about Cython. It turns out that, for me, Python's FFI is a really important factor, and a big reason why it's much easier for me to get good performance in Python than it is in Java: It makes it easy to interact with C libraries without taking a big hit on marshaling data in and out of Java's managed heap. (This is, incidentally, a major factor in Python having so thoroughly supplanted Java in the ML/BI/DS/analytics space.) But there are other situations where Java would be the clear winner. My favorite performance comparison between languages ever was the one that Raymond Chen and Rico Mariani did on implementing a practical program in C# and C++. [1] As it turns out that, at least as of 14 years ago, C++ is faster than C#, and C# is faster than C++, under different circumstances. You've really got to pay attention to which ones matter most to you before deciding where to place your bets, and just paying attention to rankings on The Computer Language Benchmarks Game is a sign that you've tried to jump to the answer without really taking enough time to understand the question. [1]: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ricom/2005/05/10/performance-quiz-6-chineseenglish-dictionary-reader/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ricom/2005/05/10/performanc...