I agree that this is the case for a lot of people. It's not a judgement of their abilities or anything like that; it's just that, as a practical matter, to real

I agree that this is the case for a lot of people. It's not a judgement of their abilities or anything like that; it's just that, as a practical matter, to really understand some things you have to commit and actually solve some real problems with them. The payoff isn't very apparent when you're starting out, but for me at least the insights I've gained from functional programming have been huge. FP isn't the only thing in this category - like many people on HN I learned OOP a long time ago, but I remember it being similarly earth shattering, and I went through a period of over-enthusiasm and evangelism for Java and GoF design patterns just like the one I went through when I first learned Haskell. The code-is-data realization that you have when you learn a Lisp is similarly powerful. I hope I experience more revelations like these! These moments where you learn a whole new way of thinking are the purest joy programming has given me.