I find from reading blog posts, HN, etc. I have a pretty good idea of a language's capabilities. Plus, if the idea is based on a particular API where some langu

I find from reading blog posts, HN, etc. I have a pretty good idea of a language's capabilities. Plus, if the idea is based on a particular API where some languages are documented better or have a library already built, that reduces development time a lot. That said, you're right that I do go outside of my comfort zone intentionally when all things appear to be equal. Otherwise I never would have gotten away from PHP for web apps.