Specifically with respect to the hiring advantage it’s a little disingenuous to not explicitly state that the creator/designer of the language works there.
That’s a significant enough reason to pick one shop over another and also a reason to opportunistically apply.
“You get to work with Evan/Guido/dhh/Gosling” is a different sell than “we use Elm/etc”.
Part of the reason we hired Evan was because the hiring advantage had been so great already, we started to ask the question "how do we maintain this hiring advantage as Elm gets more popular and the Python Paradox eventually wears off?"
I don't think we're especially close to that happening yet, though. Obviously the opportunity to work with Evan is a big differentiator for us among Elm shops, but the cover letter I quoted exemplifies a person whose reason for leaving their current position was that they wanted to work with Elm, not React.
There are plenty of opportunities for companies to attract people like that. :)
That’s a significant enough reason to pick one shop over another and also a reason to opportunistically apply.
“You get to work with Evan/Guido/dhh/Gosling” is a different sell than “we use Elm/etc”.