by adam33147 » Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:15 pm
I am 32. I was working on a project in Java, and was in really deep. Working on it for over a year. Then I read "Hackers and Painters". That book was a real eye opener for me. Although Lisp is esoteric, and the many PHP programmers will think you are crazy, it is a very rewarding experience. And its going to be difficult to explain why to do anything is Lisp as opposed to using a more popular language that has more accessable libraries. But the language allows you to think about programming in such an abstract way, that you may find yourself able to figure out the workings of many programs, written in languages you dont even know (nothing too crazy or mystical though, just basic programs).
I have been using the language for about 3 years, and so far wrote a webserver, on which I wrote an online user based file system, a multi threaded webserver (broken on my current system), and was working generating ebay turbolister csv files and webpages for a fledgeling business. Created a system, for example, to integrate user based programs written in a subset of Common Lisp with spreadsheets, so that column data could be proccessed acourding to a user program.
Its definately an eye opener. The problem I am running into now, is if I learned, for example PHP, I could probably get a job in the field, but that I learned something a gazillion times more powerfull, it seems I have to be more like a business founder, because businesses have very practical concerns, of whether or not they can do business without you. If you are a Lisper, the answer may very well be no.
Overall, I think you made the right move to Lisp, from my very limited perspective.