Do you have any evidence to suggest it is easier to write fast code in ocaml? I find it much easier. To give one example: I recently had to write some code tha

Do you have any evidence to suggest it is easier to write fast code in ocaml? I find it much easier. To give one example: I recently had to write some code that shuffles arrays based on a PRNG. In OCaml, one can simply use a mutable array and a PRNG that uses a mutable variable. In Haskell, efficient array mutation is possible, but you have to do it in the ST or IO monad. So, in a pure function you'll want to runST an expression in the ST monad. But then you need to thread the 'state' of the random number generator in function calls, or use a State-like monad. If you use a state monad, you have two monads and will probably use a monad transformer. Writing the equivalent Haskell code is much more work. But on the other side, Haskell keeps you more honest. The end result is that in Haskell, it is guaranteed that the end-result is pure (if you don't use unsafePerformIO of course). In OCaml it's only by convention. Which is better depends on what you want, convenience or safety. Personally, if I have to choose between OCaml or Haskell, I'll choose the latter. There are already plenty of languages that are pragmatic and less strongly typed. For me, OCaml provides relatively only advantages over strongly-typed imperative languages that support closures, etc. Haskell on the other hand, provides an amount of type-safety that those languages do not provide, while still being usable (both as a language and in terms of the library ecosystem).