Placebo effect

A placebo effect is the tendency of any medication or treatment, even an inert or ineffective one, to exhibit results simply because the recipient believes that it will work wiki

There is often a case in software engineering, where the creator of a successful startup, software, or tool attributes their success to the programming language framework or some other tool they have used.

In my opinion, quite often the key factor lies in the creator’s belief and confidence in this tool (which is not a bad thing!) rather than the tool itself. It is likely that the same software could have been developed with equal quality using a different tool. However, the author’s belief in their chosen language/framework empowers them. On the other hand, if the author had used a different technology, they probably would have not achieved the same results simply because they lacked belief in it.

The hidden secret lies in the development process, teamwork, decisions, and numerous other factors that contribute to the final outcome. It is a complex system, not determined by a single factor.

This effect is observable in various scenarios. Some individuals strongly believe in functional programming and immutable data structures, enabling them to create robust software. Conversely, some prefer the simplicity of imperative code, which even a junior developer can understand and modify. However, in reality, for 90% of the software applications out there, almost any tool will work — provided that the developer has a deep understanding of that particular tool and domain he/she is working in