Innovator's dilemma for programming languages

I was working on my slides about Discovering Modern Ruby Features early in the morning. As I brainstorm, I think about the innovator's dilemma and how it might apply to programming languages.

It can be applied to any established language.

As a programming language matures, it changes to stay relevant, address new problems, and improve usability. However, introducing new features or paradigms can disrupt the existing user base and ecosystem.

Community Dynamics

Long-time users of the language may prefer stability and backward compatibility.

Newer users or those facing specific pain points may advocate for more radical changes to keep the language modern and efficient.

Codebases maintainability

Balancing the need to experiment with newer features so that the language adapts and helps solve new categories of problems with the disruption these new features will create to existing codebases.

Old vs New

Ensure that the language is approachable for new learners considering their current context while also being powerful enough for advanced use cases and providing to senior developers tools to understand and solve their deep and complex use cases.

Risk of ignoring disruptions

Failing to innovate leads to outdated language and drifts away from creating value for users and businesses, as it cannot solve emergent problems. 

On the other hand, rapid and disruptive changes can alienate existing users and split the community.