The Roots of Lisp (2001)

That doesn't happen in poker.

Unlike other languages, Lisp sometimes is difficult to read by just looking at it. Staring at Lisp code, examining its "static" properties without prior training indeed may pose a challenge. But there is a way to learn how to parse Lisp code mentally. And the best way of learning that is by editing it.

First, you need to find an IDE that supports structural editing of symbolic expressions (or s-exps). Basically, it would help if you learned a few operations:

slurp, barf, transpose, raise, kill s-exp, yank s-exp

Depending on the IDE you use, they may be called differently, and there may be more, these are the basic ones.

Once you learn those basic operations, you are now ready to untangle "unreadable" Lisp. The trick is to change the code while you read it.

Similar to how Tony Stark looks at the hologram of a model and moves his hands outward, forcing the hologram to expand, then he picks one of the parts, studies it, maybe completely removes it. He then would move his hands in a closing motion, and hologram would "assemble." That's how you work with Lisp.

So, for example, you read a function, if necessary, extract things, pick an expression, evaluate it, etc. Once you gain a good understanding of what the function does, you can undo all the changes, or if you think you have improved it - do save.

In other languages, when the structure of the code is settled, it's more challenging to pick it apart, move things in and out. You are forced to read the code "top to bottom." But in Lisp, code is a living, breathing thing. You basically feel like performing a surgery - you can tweak things, try them, and see instantaneous feedback in the REPL.

In other languages, code is "dead," until you save it, (re)compile it and execute it. And REPL in those languages is "crippled" and not a fully-fledged "true" REPL like in Lisp. Being able to pick any [sub]expression and evaluate it, without any kind of prior ceremony is truly liberating and empowering.

It takes time, for some it's hours, for others - weeks, but eventually you will stop seeing parentheses, and instead, you will see structure, consistency, and meaning. And Lisp becomes more readable than any other language you've used before.

Yet, somehow out of all Lisp dialects, Clojure today remains the most pragmatic choice. Clojurescript is arguably the best alt-js choice, where Elm, Reason and Purescript for various reasons still can't reach its level of the simplicity and practicality.

Clojure has immutability by default, which alone has number of great benefits. It is FP focused. It can be learned à la carte, which greatly simplifies process of learning.

Clojure community is one of the friendliest and most diverse communities of developers.

In comparison, Common Lisp today (sadly) becoming like Latin of programming languages. It is cool to learn it and know it, but in many circles the practicality of that knowledge remains somewhat questionable.

Lisp is based on math and logic. And if there's a God, he probably speaks Math. So, maybe those fanboys onto something here.

But, seriously, once you learn a bit of Lisp, you realize that Lisp has influenced every single modern programming language. Essentially, no matter what PL you are programming in - we are all programming in a Lisp. Sometimes your language of choice adheres to core principles of Lisp, sometimes that connection is loose. Nevertheless, there's plenty of Lisp in every modern programming language. So, no. Lisp is not overrated.