Running Lisp in Production (2020)
We've also been using Lisp in production. It has gone wonderfully, and has allowed some of the most simultaneously maintainable, resilient, <i>and</i> efficient code I've seen in my career. It's also attractive differentiator to some programmers who don't want to drone away writing bulk-Java day-in and day-out.<p>A key to running Lisp in production is to step away from thinking of it as a lone-wolf bionic-suit hacker language, and to invest in developing a style guide, code review guidelines, CI/CD, and a culture of training new programmers to write Lisp. I've found that you typically don't have to hire Lisp specialists. As long as you find good <i>programmers</i>, they pick up Lisp just fine in just a few short weeks.<p>The sibling comments are right though: Lisp's reputation is unfortunately affected by so, so many myths that it actually stunts the ecosystem in certain ways. The most rampant myth these days is that (somehow) macros automatically imply doom of a codebase after a certain size or contributor count. Classic myths from decades ago, like "Lisp is interpreted and slow", still echo from time to time too. Lisp's extensive, half-century history is a strength but also clearly a (social) weakness.<p>A lot of myths come from good-intentioned speculation of the supposed consequences of certain features or aspects of Lisp, and not from actual experience using it.