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I don't think that's true. Sure you need quite some experience with the language to actually appreciate its strengths, but when optimising for low attention span and focusing on the kind of literature that allows people to jump quickly into solving problems (rather than those texts that start slowly and focus on laying out the foundation), provided existing experience with another language, you can start building things in no time. Lisp is just like any other language.

That's why today I simply point people to the cookbook [0]. If they keep the interest, they'll eventually jump to the classics.

[0] https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/



Even the famous long time Lisp aficionados like Paul Graham today recommend Clojure instead of CL. That seems to be more pragmatic choice.


I like Clojure, but whether it is a more pragmatic choice (or if it’s even a Lisp) is a bit off topic here.

If someone asks me for advice on how to get started with Common Lisp I will point them them to CL resources.




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