That was how I've always seen Ruby and Python. I've tried Python before and didn't like it. It had nothing to do with any technical reasons and was purely aesth

That was how I've always seen Ruby and Python. I've tried Python before and didn't like it. It had nothing to do with any technical reasons and was purely aesthetics. The article's main point is that Ruby is supposed to make you feel good. It's origin is Japanese, and the language itself is more like a Zen garden. 'Harmony' is a word that has as much impact in the Japanese and Chinese cultures as 'freedom' and 'dream' does in America. Although diluted from its contact with the youthful American culture, those cultures has a fascination with ancient, or at least the wisdom of the elders. Here, there is a fascination with the youthful and the new. That's why you see news of 12-year-old kid raising $6 million in VC funding for an MMO e-commerce product. In Chinese and Japanese stories, both old folklore and current modern renderings of it, there are stories of the young getting rewarded for listening to the old sages. In the Japanese stories in particular, there is a common theme of the older generation passing on the world to the newer generation by allowing them to make their own mistakes while having faith that they will survive and prosper. Translated into American terms, at best you would hear "get rewarded for working hard", and "we're younger so we know what's 'cool'." So you hear a lot of news of young startups and the kids that started them up. When you hear of old Mrs. B starting up a new furniture chain because she had a disagreement with the upper management of the company she owned and sold to Warren Buffett (http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/clubs/investment/WarrenBuffett.html http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/clubs/investment/WarrenB... ), you don't get the sense that Mrs. B is lording it over her hirelings, "You should do this because in my experience ... ". Instead, you get the sense that at age 97, Mr. B. is still more youthful and active than the executives she hired in her first company. The point is that the cultural undertones of 'harmony' gets seriously lost when transplanted into the American culture. People here often have other reasons for picking up Ruby. So why might someone here write in Ruby? Because its expressive power gives you the freedom to make real what only you can see (vision). Because you can concentrate on improving the product and add new features. Because it is part of the current crop of technologies that lowers the requirements for a startup ... so you can drop everything, pursue the American dream -- write something millions want to use, make some big bucks, and retire young so you can enjoy the rest of your life. Or at least before you hit middle age.