I'd also argue that a community, and at the very least a team, is what designs a language and not just a single person. The language might start as a vision by

I'd also argue that a community, and at the very least a team, is what designs a language and not just a single person. The language might start as a vision by a single person but ultimately it is driven by something more collaborative. I disagree and think it's a good way to make a language bad. The first way to make mistakes in a language is not to look at the math. The second way is to have no "taste."[1] Communities are not widely regarded for their ability to design cohesive tasteful systems. That comes from a singular vision that is realized by a community. [1] It's hard to provide a succinct definition of taste in a language, but mostly it comes from picking a style of programming and then ruthlessly cutting features which can't fit into that style.