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If you are interested in Lisp because of PG's essays its important to know that he now recommends Clojure.
From "Beating The Averages"
If a language will make you a better programmer, why wouldn't you want to use it all the time?
Agree wholeheartedly -- which is one of many reasons why Roamresearch.com was written in Clojurescript
paulgraham.com/avg.html
If a language will make you a better programmer, why wouldn't you want to use it all the time?
Agree wholeheartedly -- which is one of many reasons why Roamresearch.com was written in Clojurescript
paulgraham.com/avg.html
I spent a long time building prototypes of tools for thought in other languages - mostly ruby and with different Javascript frameworks.
I started taking Clojurescript seriously when I read the inspiration docs from @dan_abramov's Redux library and saw @bhauman's talk on figwheel
I started taking Clojurescript seriously when I read the inspiration docs from @dan_abramov's Redux library and saw @bhauman's talk on figwheel
Got a sense that the Clojure community was reading really widely, looking for core ideas from all the other language communities, and incorporating them into their libraries / tools in really pragmatic ways
Decided to fly out to the Conj and Clojure/West
Decided to fly out to the Conj and Clojure/West
Clojure definitely has a steep learning curve, but that's a good thing, you learn a lot really really fast when you get into it, and the core ideas (around state change, composition and reuse) are ridiculously powerful.
Community is curious, practical, warm, humble & resourceful
Community is curious, practical, warm, humble & resourceful
A lot of people say, isn't it a risky business decision to build a startup in such an obscure programming language?
Clojure engineers have among the highest salaries in the US and worldwide.
Aren't you worried about hiring?
Clojure engineers have among the highest salaries in the US and worldwide.
Aren't you worried about hiring?
No. And here is one reason.
I met my cofounder at 42.us.org when we were both learning C
The piscine was basically an endurance test for autodidacts
He was in the lab till 4am most nights, teaching himself and helping poor fools like myself on the problem sets
I met my cofounder at 42.us.org when we were both learning C
The piscine was basically an endurance test for autodidacts
He was in the lab till 4am most nights, teaching himself and helping poor fools like myself on the problem sets
At the end of 42 piscine, showed him the first prototype of Roam I'd built myself.
He was interested, so I told him I'd give him a job if he taught himself Clojure.
His first commit was less than 6 weeks later.
Offered him a cofounder equity stake less than a month after that
He was interested, so I told him I'd give him a job if he taught himself Clojure.
His first commit was less than 6 weeks later.
Offered him a cofounder equity stake less than a month after that
@sama has said something like
You hire for character (grit, resilience, integrity), then intelligence, then skill, in that order.
I think of it as
"hire for talent, train for skill"
where talent also includes things like virtue, values, desire to learn and solve problems
You hire for character (grit, resilience, integrity), then intelligence, then skill, in that order.
I think of it as
"hire for talent, train for skill"
where talent also includes things like virtue, values, desire to learn and solve problems
The Clojure community is overflowing with friendly, open minded, humble and helpful people.
Folks like @nathanmarz who have had tons of professional success, raised tons of money for their startups, but would still be spending hours on slack answering qs from noobs like myself
Folks like @nathanmarz who have had tons of professional success, raised tons of money for their startups, but would still be spending hours on slack answering qs from noobs like myself
Clojure is an amazing language to write in (it is itself a tool for thought) but the reason to use it for a startup is that it has a beautiful community to be a part of.
The kind of people who learn Clojure are so often the kind of people I just want to be around day to day.
The kind of people who learn Clojure are so often the kind of people I just want to be around day to day.
Another case in point -- @timothypratley
Met him at my first clojure conference, I'd learned Reagent from his YouTube videos
He'd been working in CLJ for 10 years, I had like 8 months, yet he agreed to help me start a research club
timothypratley.blogspot.com/2016/11/my-res…
Met him at my first clojure conference, I'd learned Reagent from his YouTube videos
He'd been working in CLJ for 10 years, I had like 8 months, yet he agreed to help me start a research club
timothypratley.blogspot.com/2016/11/my-res…
That list serve was how I figured out architecture for making Roam a real-time collaborative tool
Tim, and @djwhitt helped me figure that out, for free, over hours of skype calls, way before I had a product or any hope of funding
Years later, we're still using lots of that code
Tim, and @djwhitt helped me figure that out, for free, over hours of skype calls, way before I had a product or any hope of funding
Years later, we're still using lots of that code
More from PG on Clojure
Forgot that @stuarthalloway -- prob most central figure in the community besides @richhickey -- first learned it because of "beating the averages"
Also, everything I was saying about why you want to hire Clojurians PG said here
paulgraham.com/pypar.html
Forgot that @stuarthalloway -- prob most central figure in the community besides @richhickey -- first learned it because of "beating the averages"
Also, everything I was saying about why you want to hire Clojurians PG said here
paulgraham.com/pypar.html
