Really though, I felt similarly to OP until I read On Lisp[0] and Let Over Lambda[1]. They are chock full of explicit examples. You can only learn so much from

Really though, I felt similarly to OP until I read On Lisp[0] and Let Over Lambda[1]. They are chock full of explicit examples. You can only learn so much from StackOverflow questions and Quora answers. I also hear good things about Paradigms of AI Programming, but I haven't read it yet. From Peter Norvig's retro on the book[2], here are the lessons in it which involve macros: Design patterns can be used informally, or can be abstracted into a formal function, macro, or data type (often involving higher-order functions). [p. 177] We can write a compiler as a set of macros. [p. 277] If you can understand how to write and when to use once-only, then you truly understand macros [p. 853] A word to the wise: don't get carried away with macros [p. 855] [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html [1] https://letoverlambda.com/index.cl/toc https://letoverlambda.com/index.cl/toc [2] https://norvig.com/Lisp-retro.html https://norvig.com/Lisp-retro.html