Not all "hackers" are language geeks, plenty of smart people will not necessarily invest their time in learning new exotic programming languages as language learning for the sake of it is not interesting for everyone.
Other considerations for language choice will certainly include documentation and the accessibility of that documentation. Looking up a few pieces of code to do familiar tasks is much easier than reading a grand language design document as a way to get a feel for a language.
Having usage in some large commercial setting is also a consideration. For example knowing that Google uses python extensively can give one some confidence that python is unlikely to suddenly die out one day because Google wouldn't let that happen.
Not all "hackers" are language geeks, plenty of smart people will not necessarily invest their time in learning new exotic programming languages as language learning for the sake of it is not interesting for everyone.
Other considerations for language choice will certainly include documentation and the accessibility of that documentation. Looking up a few pieces of code to do familiar tasks is much easier than reading a grand language design document as a way to get a feel for a language.
Having usage in some large commercial setting is also a consideration. For example knowing that Google uses python extensively can give one some confidence that python is unlikely to suddenly die out one day because Google wouldn't let that happen.