Let me try to get this straight: Lisp is a language for describing algorithms. This was JohnMcCarthy's original purpose, anyway: to build something more convenient than a Turing machine. Lisp is not about file, socket or GUI programming - Lisp is about expressive power. (For example, you can design multiple object systems for Lisp, in Lisp. Or implement the now-fashionable AOP. Or do arbitrary transformations on parsed source code.) If you don't value expressive power, Lisp ain't for you. I, personally, would prefer Lisp to not become mainstream: this would necessarily involve a dumbing down. -- VladimirSlepnev
It's like a condom; I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. -- some chick in Alien vs. Predator, when asked why she always carries a gun
We are the sum of our behaviours; excellence therefore is not an act but a habit. -- Aristotle.
Everything that can be invented has been invented. -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
Have you ever noticed that when you sit down to write something, half the ideas that end up in it are ones you thought of while writing it? The same thing happens with software. Working to implement one idea gives you more ideas. -- Paul Graham, The other road ahead.
Side projects are less masturbatory than reading RSS, often more useful than MobileMe, more educational than the comments on Reddit, and usually more fun than listening to keynotes. -- Chris Wanstrath
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. –Dalai Lama
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~Jim Ryun
I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear. –Rosa Parks
You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing, no one to blame. –Erica Jong