Weird Languages
This is a line that resonates with me, and the one which some negative comments might overlook (3 hours in, at least):<p><pre><code>  &quot;What can you say in this language that would 
  be impossibly inconvenient to say in others? 
  In the process of learning how to say things 
  you couldn&#x27;t previously say, you&#x27;ll probably 
  be learning how to think things you couldn&#x27;t 
  previously think.&quot;
</code></pre>
This is one of the value propositions of language. It&#x27;s one of the ways we learn new things, and thus become more capable of doing valuable work as people.<p>Criticisms of this essay in comments so far have seemed to fall into these buckets:<p><pre><code>  1. Lisp? Macros? Boo. (Not novel&#x2F;too weird&#x2F;etc)

  2. Languages are solved, not important; I build systems.

  3. I don&#x27;t like the tone of this essay.
</code></pre>
(1) and (3) are side points, unrelated to thesis. (2) is the interesting one, and at the heart of what the essay talks about.<p>I&#x27;ve always been in the pg camp on this one. Sure, systems are the thing, we can&#x27;t be purists, etc -- but saying that languages don&#x27;t matter, for us, would be like rocket engineers saying that materials don&#x27;t matter.<p>If you&#x27;re building a table, you can make it out of almost anything; a table is a solved problem. Wood, carbon fiber, steel.<p>But at the limits of what&#x27;s possible, like a rocket, the material&#x27;s properties, limitations, and weaknesses in extreme circumstances matter.<p>You can definitely imagine that important things are happening, in the maker&#x27;s mind, when they start working with a new material, seeing what others are able to do with it, seeing how the making process is easier, or what steps are unimportant&#x2F;unnecessary now vs. in their usual materials. And that informs their thinking, going forward, about what&#x27;s possible in systems they might build.