20/07/2025
Wrong programing language for the right project.
Thoughts for the
From my experience and analysis over a decade in software delivery, I’ve learned that blaming the programming language for a struggling project that isn’t firing on all cylinders is almost always a red herring and many developers tend to blame the the programming language. when things go south.
It is important to know that every tech stack has its strengths and trade-offs. When deadlines tighten and requirements shift, it’s easy to point fingers at your tooling. But more often than not, underperformance stems from architecture, process, or mismatched requirements not necessarily the syntax or runtime, what always gave me issues was monoliths without clear boundaries!! i can assure that they choke as they grow, worse if you choose a stack without defining performance, scalability, and maintainability first.
Some years back I watched a team rewrite a mission-critical service from Python into Go only to discover that their bottleneck was a monolithic design and missing caching layer. The switch shaved off milliseconds per request, but the real gains came when we restructured the service into smaller, independently deployable modules.
Months down a friend who planed a fintech startup i advised adopted a heavyweight Java framework for a small MVP they spent weeks wrestling with configuration before writing a single business rule.
At another startup in Lusaka, a data-streaming pipeline in pure JavaScript on Node.js began to choke under load. It wasn’t Node’s fault it was missing back-pressure handling and proper batch writes to the database.
Startups often choose heavy, enterprise-grade frameworks only to hit slow build times and steep learning curves.
Data-intensive platforms designed in a general-purpose scripting language can struggle with concurrency and memory management.
Real-time systems built on tech that favors batch processing can end up with latency issues.
What really matters
Requirements first: Define performance, scalability, and maintainability goals before picking a language.
Architecture matters: A poor design or unclear responsibilities will bite you regardless of whether you’re coding in Java, Python, or Rust. A sound, modular architecture will carry you farther than the latest and greatest language buzz.
Team expertise: You’ll move faster in a language your team knows well. Ramp-up time is real.
Iterate and measure: Benchmark early, profile often, and refactor decisively.
Next time your project hits a wall, ask the right questions:
Are our requirements realistic?
Is our architecture modular and scalable?
Do we have the right skill sets in place?
Remember language is the paintbrush. It can highlight great design but it won’t fix a shaky canvas. Let’s stop blaming the brush and focus on mastering our craft.
