> it's not very common for people to change sides after their initial indoctrination. I was initially repulsed when I saw examples of Lisp code. After I had be

> it's not very common for people to change sides after their initial indoctrination. I was initially repulsed when I saw examples of Lisp code. After I had been in the static, Algol-like world for many years (Pascal, C, Ada, C++) I encountered more dynamic languages like Perl, Java, Python, and Ruby. I was fascinated by things you could do in those languages (especially Python and Ruby), and then learned that Lisp had been doing these kinds of things better for decades. That got me interested enough to move beyond the dislike of things like parentheses. However, now things are different. There are now several choices of languages that have a mix of expressive power and efficiency that rival or surpass Lisp such that it doesn't stand out as much. I would say it's ability to be customized is now the main feature and curse of the language. It causes some people to love it, but makes it unsuitable for the typical large team project unless you have very strict controls on how it is used.