Javascript objects have some differences to Clojure maps that make them harder to use in the same way. For example, you don't have to store functions in object

Javascript objects have some differences to Clojure maps that make them harder to use in the same way. For example, you don't have to store functions in objects in Javascript, but the language design encourages it. This is problematic because we can't pull data out of an object without considering the functions that rely on it. Another issue is that keys are not unique. Two objects might contain an "id" key, for example, that identifies them in different ways. This is problematic if you want to arbitrarily merge objects together. Idiomatic Javascript might look like this: user.orders.total_cost() But if we want to program in the same way as Clojure, we'd perhaps be writing something more like: Orders.total_cost(user["user/orders"]); Not impossible, but certainly more inconvenient. The more you force rigid categorisations and behaviour on data, the harder it is to manipulate and organise in different ways. In-memory data is almost always ordered with a hierarchical structure, because that's what closed records gravitate toward. But if we take a look at databases, its rare to find any organised along strict hierarchical lines.