I seek out companies using niche languages not because I necessarily care about that specific language, but because I find that companies that are willing to wo

I seek out companies using niche languages not because I necessarily care about that specific language, but because I find that companies that are willing to work with niche tech tend to be more fun to work for. Typically if you're a Haskell or F# developer, then you probably are at least a little interested in theory and mathematics. Since I'm also interested in theory and math, there's a selection bias of "folks I am extremely likely to get along with". With a more mainstream language like Java, you're not necessarily going to select for that trait. This isn't to knock Java engineers, since I know a ton of Java engineers much smarter than me, but that fact that Java (JavaScript/Python/C#/any-other-mainstream-language) is popular means that a lot of people learn it because there's a lot of jobs in it and/or it pays well. There's nothing wrong with using a language that makes you money obviously, and there's nothing wrong with liking Java, but as a perpetual-geek I am certainly less drawn to "Java Shops".