The immediate mismatch is the alien nature of the parenthesis delimited s-expressions. My advice is that if you find yourself editing text  as opposed to the structure of the s-exp or balancing parenthesis manually you are doing it wrong; Emacs has modes like paredit and smartparens to do it.<p>The next &quot;culture shock&quot;, though I think this has lessened now due to other languages catching up, is the concept of closures, functions as values, and higher order functions.<p>Lisps also tend to be dynamically type so if that is not familiar to you then it will take some getting used to.<p>There are other high level concepts such has syntax abstractions (macros) but that can wait.<p>And Common Lisp has CLOS which is a different take, compared to the likes of C++ and Java, on Object Oriented programming.<p>As for what to do first; I am not really sure, depends on whether it&#x27;s Racket or Common Lisp and a lot on what interests you. If you like doing small algorithmic problems such as the Euler Project then start there.<p>For Common Lisp there is Practical Common Lisp which is always a good primer.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gigamonkeys.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gigamonkeys.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;</a><p>And Learn Lisp the Hard Way (I am not familiar with it though)<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;learnlispthehardway.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;learnlispthehardway.org&#x2F;</a><p>For a Common Lisp implementation I would recommend SBCL if on Linux (your package manager should have it) and CCL on Windows or MacOS.<p>SBCL: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sbcl.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sbcl.org&#x2F;</a><p>CCL: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ccl.clozure.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ccl.clozure.com&#x2F;</a><p>Also use quicklisp for grabbing Common Lisp projects, it&#x27;s alot easier than doing it manually.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quicklisp.org&#x2F;beta&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quicklisp.org&#x2F;beta&#x2F;</a><p>This might also be useful:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;eudoxia.me&#x2F;article&#x2F;common-lisp-sotu-2015&#x2F;#specific-problems" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;eudoxia.me&#x2F;article&#x2F;common-lisp-sotu-2015&#x2F;#specific-pr...</a><p>Someone else will have to give info on the Racket ecosystem I am not familiar with that.