There is a large class of problems that aren't worth writing in assembly but for which Clojure is (currently) still too slow. Sometimes you just need something

There is a large class of problems that aren't worth writing in assembly but for which Clojure is (currently) still too slow. Sometimes you just need something at Java's (or preferably Scala's) position on the power/performance spectrum. That said, the way Clojure is improving, I think it will continue to asymptotically approach Java's speed anyway.