throwaway504

The L8 manager of our org declared that all projects must be on the JVM, and if the language wasn't Java, then we would need to submit a six pager explaining why. Perhaps he was just being conservative, but to me there's something off-putting when those types of decisions come from managers rather than from the engineers.

That said, our org did manage to have a few projects that aren't Java, so I guess I would have to concede that the Java claim is factually false as well. But it sure doesn't feel like I am empowered to choose something other than Java.

Isn't that a bit disingenuous? Your role at Amazon is nothing like the typical engineer at Amazon. You live in the shiny new world while the majority of engineers are stuck on something that's not too far from the article.