Maybe it helps to simply notice that Clojure code is stored in a data format. Or it may help for you try to write a simple macro. (Macros give you extra power

Maybe it helps to simply notice that Clojure code is stored in a data format. Or it may help for you try to write a simple macro. (Macros give you extra power in extending the language, in ways which a language designer couldn't foresee. Because they're not omniscient; for your domain, you can be the expert, not them. Macros let people add paradigms-as-libraries. You may never write a macro, but you can benefit from those who do.) Now that I'm proficient, I see those parens as cute little code units. With my code editor, I operate on these code units, not just characters. In contrast, other languages seem to have lots of punctuation in all sorts of weird places. Messy. You can also use ->>: (reduce (filter-reducer even?) [] (reduce (map-reducer inc) [] (range 10))) can be written more clearly: (->> (range 10) (reduce (map-reducer inc) []) (reduce (filter-reducer even?) []))