SelfishScript. JavaScript credits Self as inspiration, but misses all the important things about Self.

JavaScript copied:

The name "Java", cynically chosen for marketing misdirection, not technical truth.

The word "prototype" from Self, but turned it into a quirky pseudo-class system. Instead of living objects delegating naturally, with multiple inheritance dynamically changeable at runtime, JavaScript glued on a weird constructor-function pattern that always confuses people, with constructors you have to call with new but can also uselessly call as normal functional foot-guns.

JavaScript missed:

The fluid, live object experience (JavaScript dev environments were never designed around exploration like Self’s Morphic).

The elegance of uniformity (JavaScript bolted on primitives, type coercions, and special cases everywhere).

The idea that the environment mattered as much as the language. Netscape didn’t ship with the kind of rich, reflective tools that made Self shine.

And most important of all: Self's simplicity! The original Self paper (Ungar & Smith, 1987, “Self: The Power of Simplicity”) was all about stripping away everything unnecessary until only a uniform, minimal object model remained. The title wasn’t ornamental, it was the thesis.

Simplicity. Uniformity. Minimal semantics. A clean consistent model you can hold in your head. Less semantic baggage frustrating JIT compiler optimization. Dynamic de-optimization (or pessimization as I like to call it).

Self proved that expressive power comes from radical simplicity.

JavaScript showed that market dominance comes from compromise (worse is better, the selfish gene).

JavaScript should be called SelfishScript because it claimed Self’s legacy but betrayed its central insight: that simplicity is not just aesthetic, it’s the whole design philosophy.

What about SloppyScript? It has a nice ring to it.

> No, it still causes confusion from new programmers, HR, execs who thinks JavaScript === writing Java Scripts.

Anyone that stupid in 2025 is hopeless.

What are they teaching then? I mean, if you're doing a backend - and I don't mean tiny wrapper that wraps user input into queries, I mean the database engine itself - it's Java/Scala or C++ (hopefully not C)? Maybe Go? What else do they choose to teach for heavy industrial backend use?

> I don't think they're teaching Java much in university or boot camps anymore so it doesn't matter much anyway

That might just be the bubble you are in. Java is still one of the biggest languages used in corporations across the globes for anything backend related. If it is because it is a modern COBOL or because it actually is a stable language with a solid ecosystem might be a matter of some debate.

In the circles I navigate it is still heavily featured in various bootcamps.

Sure, some recruiters don't know the difference between Java and JavaScript and have no idea of what those job requirements mean. But it looks like a competency issue to me. Have you ever seen a Google opening that confuses Java and JavaScript?

They always care later when money is available and they need a new way to damage their brand.