Dynamic languages reduce the formal overhead required to develop new ideas.<p>I can&#x27;t imagine that an &quot;eliminate boilerplate via convention at the cost of explicitness&quot; mentality would have evolved independently in a world where assurances are earned by proving extra properties to the compiler.<p>However mordern compiled languages now formalise the shortcuts afforded by dynamic languages, e.g. type inference, generics, implicit conversions, typesafe macros, type classes, etc.<p>Similarily conventions popularised by rails-esqe frameworks are being formalised using the tools listed above.<p>I fall into the scala camp, but have used rails at a previous job. My guess is I need 1.5x scala lines vs Ruby which I believe is a justified cost. Opinions of course vary.