That first paragraph resonated with me as well. I've been using lisp for just a few months, so I'm hardly the grizzled lisp veteran of stereotype. And yet when I bring up lisp and you-the-person-across-from-me-who-seemed-so-smart-until-now say parentheses are hard to read, I find it's easy to sympathize with lispers. The language has lots wrong with it, no question. But if you're pretending to be knowledgeable about the subject and your critique of lisp includes 'parentheses', you're a moron. (Exhibit A: Quora founder Charlie Cheever http://www.quora.com/Is-Arc-a-useful-language-for-web-progra...)