&quot;I expect the companies that are starting new C++ projects today to be put out of business by competitors using better languages.&quot;<p>I don&#x27;t think that&#x27;s how software business works. I&#x27;m pretty confident there are niches out there where even COBOL would be a just fine implementation language if it provided end value for the user.<p>Domain understanding, network effects and marketing seem to trump bleeding edge most of the time.<p>That&#x27;s not to say there are no situations where selecting a better language would lead to far better outcomes if there is time pressure and the language is viable choice with the technical constraints of the project. I&#x27;m just highly skeptical that this is a rule that works in general.<p>For an extreme example where this rule starts to look dubious, embedded systems - are there any better languages even available?