Writing software no one wants does not create value—that’s called a class project.
My corollary to that is that if you write software that does create value, it doesn't matter what editor or language you use. So if you're super duper productive in Perl (or whatever) don't worry too much about chasing after whatever language HN is fetishizing at the moment. It will change in a few months anyway.
A while ago I met an older friend for lunch. I used to work with him years ago in my first job (failed startup). He was out on his own again building out an innovative idea he had in Smalltalk, (which is what he knew). I was talking to him about FP and type theory about all the debates that were going on about it. He just said that its a waste of time listening to most of the people on these kinds of sites because you can tell straight away that most of them don't build anything. Of course that's not quite true, but there was enough truth in it for me to feel like it was a friendly kick in the ass.
I think you misunderstood that comment. I don't think he was referring to writing IN A software no one wants, as in a specific programming language. I think he meant that if there's no demand for the software itself then it doesn't create value for anyone because, well, no one wants it.
Maybe I should try and rephrase my comment in case it is not clear. I understood Sam Altman's comment the same way you did. I was trying to find an analogy between wasting time writing software nobody wants and wasting energy trying to write software using whatever language happens to be most popular at the moment.
I'm not trying to say learning new languages is not worth it. I'm just saying that if you stick with what you know well for your production code, you can probably generate value more efficiently than if you are switching to the new HN fad language every six months.
My corollary to that is that if you write software that does create value, it doesn't matter what editor or language you use. So if you're super duper productive in Perl (or whatever) don't worry too much about chasing after whatever language HN is fetishizing at the moment. It will change in a few months anyway.