The problem I had is I learned a bit of LISP - just the basics and then thought “hey this is super powerful - I bet it can elegantly solve some great problems”

The problem I had is I learned a bit of LISP - just the basics and then thought “hey this is super powerful - I bet it can elegantly solve some great problems” but then I was stuck! I had no idea what sorts of problems or how to go about it. I guess I’d need to see some motivating examples. The tutorial had a very cool test framework in like 5 or 6 lines of macros so I got a feel for the power but I’d need to see more. My fear with lisp is that if you use macros it can become obscure what is really going on. Even in C# when I’ve seen metaprogramming done it can kill the discoverability of an app, meaning you have to talk to people who have talked to the person who left the company who knows the mental model. Searching code for keywords no longer helps, or you read the entire codebase to figure out how it works. It was a relief to get off that and work with more familiar CRUD like code. If someone writes a macro, they should write a manual!