Errors are introduced at constant ratio per line of code that is not syntactically checked by compiler. The ratio is specific to developer and language used. E

Errors are introduced at constant ratio per line of code that is not syntactically checked by compiler. The ratio is specific to developer and language used. E.g., you can't make a mistake on a line that contains only curly bracket, but you can make (one-off) mistake on line "i += 10;" The more verbose code, the more lines of code that are not syntactically checked. The more errors you introduce during development. Why I talk about syntax and not types? Because type system of go and some other languages like C (and C#, C++ and some other including OCaml, for that matter) are not rich enough to express long dependencies as is done in Rust with its borrow checker. Rust has its own failing, of course. In some cases of type systems [1] it is possible to express environments with long dependencies without resorting to hacking of a compiler. But most languages do not have that luxury, the only dependence checking are balancing brackets and missing variable declarations. [1] http://blog.sigfpe.com/2009/02/beyond-monads.html http://blog.sigfpe.com/2009/02/beyond-monads.html The axiom of (not only) software engineering says that cost to fix a defect is directly propotional to the time between introduction and discovery of said defect. The funnel of defect filtering (personal review, colleague code review, CI, QA, beta, etc) is not perfect, it still allows for some defects to fall through. The more defects are on wide part of the funnel, the more defects are on the narrow part of it. And for these defects that pass through, the time between introduction and discovery is bigger than for all other defects. The more verbose code in some language, the more defects developer will generate using that language. The more defects will pass through defect detection funnel. The biger will be the cost to fix them and cost of software user to, well, use the software. Google can afford that, because they can afford extremely long funnel with prolonged code reviews, big QA teams and long lasting betas. They can afford that because of money they got. Practically everyone else cannot afford that. Ego is not even a problem when you factor all other problems you get with simple or good enough verbose solutions.