I was a fan of Python and Lisp, and skeptical of functional programming (with full referential transparency). I knew many people praised Haskell, but in particu

I was a fan of Python and Lisp, and skeptical of functional programming (with full referential transparency). I knew many people praised Haskell, but in particular, I didn't understand how it could replace Lisp macros for building abstractions (the article http://www.haskellforall.com/2012/06/you-could-have-invented-free-monads.html http://www.haskellforall.com/2012/06/you-could-have-invented... changed my mind on that). I was also skeptical about static typing. Then I tried to program in Haskell and I was able to do what I was unable to do in previous languages - write short enough functions that focus on one thing, and which compose in type safe way. So now I am a big fan of Haskell, if you don't particularly need speed (Haskell can be made fast but it takes quite an effort) then it's a great choice of language. (Interestingly, common refrain of many comments here is "then I tried it"; I suggest that you really do, if you are personally skeptical about something, but there is a reason that suggests you might be wrong.)