My experience with racket is certainly not one of steep learning curve. Plus it is _thoroughly_ documented. If I had to recommend a Lisp implementation for some

My experience with racket is certainly not one of steep learning curve. Plus it is _thoroughly_ documented. If I had to recommend a Lisp implementation for someone that wants to learn a Lisp it would definitely be Racket as it is easy to install (and works on windows), has great documentation and a super friendly and interesting community. The only thing I'm not fond of Racket is that compared to CL w/ Slime it feels way less interactive, a step up from Python, but still not CL (nor Smalltalk) But lets focus on the positive, the OP is highlighting that the trite criticism of non-lispers about parens is bogus.