I wrote a book on Go, so I'm biased. But when I started using Go more than a decado ago, it really felt like a breath of fresh air. It made coding _fun_ again, less boilerplate heavy than Java, simple enough to pick up, and performance was generally good.

There's no single 'best language', and it depends on what your use-cases are. But I'd say that for many typical backend tasks, Go is a choice you won't really regret, even if you have some gripes with the language.

Often, when I have some home DIY or woodworking problem, I reach for my trusty Dremel:

* The Dremel is approachable: I don't have to worry about cutting off my hand with the jigsaw or set up a jig with the circular saw. I don't have to haul my workpiece out to the garage.

* The Dremel is simple: One slider for speed. Apply spinny bit to workpiece.

* The Dremel is fun: It fits comfortably in my hand. It's not super loud. I don't worry about hurting myself with it. It very satisfyingly shaves bits of stuff off things.

In so many respects, the Dremel is a great tool. But 90% of the time when I use it, it ends up taking my five times as long (but an enjoyable 5x!) and the end result is a wobbly scratchy mess. I curse myself for not spending the upfront willpower to use the right tool for the job.

I find myself doing this with all sorts of real and software tools: Over-optimizing for fun and ease-of-entry and forgetting the value of the end result and using the proper tool for the job.

I think of this as the "Dremel effect" and I try to be mindful of it when selecting tools.

Exactly this! I have been programming in Go for many years and it basically made programming enjoyable for me again. No crazy abstractions, no overcomplicated syntax, hidden constructors, forgotten exception handling, etc. And it crosscompiles easily and is fast at runtime. I love it. No other language achived this for me.