What is your background? One of the more important (to me) questions in my Road to Lisp Survey (an ez goog) was about the background of the respondent. If yours is any Lisp, yawn, if it is COBOL... <g>
Mostly a hobby hacker. Came to Lisp via C++. Loved programming but didn't know how hard the language was making it until around '98 when I read Peter Norvig's PAIP, and was blown away. Couldn't understand why such a great language had been more or less forgotten by the tech mainstream. Soon after that I quit the commercial scene altogether, and have stayed away ever since. These days I hack only as a hobby, and choose whatever tools feel best. Had some fun with Python, but have never enjoyed a language as much as Lisp.
I like Paul's approach with Arc for all kinds of reasons, most of them aesthetic. I look forward to using a language that remains simple and elegant at its core, but knows how to do messy stuff, and isn't sullied by it.
