I think there must be a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. Pure art or math might be top-down (McCarthy). You might be more of a bottom-up pers

I think there must be a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. Pure art or math might be top-down (McCarthy). You might be more of a bottom-up person. Or did McCarthy create LISP from tinkering with code and seeing the inadequacies in what already existed? I'm afraid I don't know as much about the history as I'd like to.