Do you have concrete examples of this difficulty? I very often find it difficult to understand code in non-Lisp languages, too. For example, you may think you

Do you have concrete examples of this difficulty? I very often find it difficult to understand code in non-Lisp languages, too. For example, you may think you know Ruby, but that has nothing to do with understanding Rails or its myriad metalinguistic tricks. Abstractions are often difficult to understand, and require explanations. Introducing a new abstraction, regardless of implementation language, puts the burden on you to define it with clarity, to document its purpose and meaning, and so on. Lisp macros let you define abstractions in a certain way that's quite powerful. Fortunately, Lisp systems also tend to have good provisions for online documentation, and make available macro-expansion facilities that immediately explain exactly what a given macro is doing.