Previous discussions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5266220 (1 comment)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6112467 (59 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11932241 (44 comments)

"The third project I would not like to leave unmentioned is LISP, a fascinating enterprise of a completely different nature. With a few very basic principles at its foundation, it has shown a remarkable stability. Besides that, LISP has been the carrier for a considerable number of in a sense our most sophisticated computer applications. LISP has jokingly been described as “the most intelligent way to misuse a computer”. I think that description a great compliment because it transmits the full flavour of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts."

It's interesting how elegant languages are those least used.

Transcription: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EWD340...

"One moral of the above story is, of course, that we must be very careful when we give advice to younger people: sometimes they follow it!"

Cute line.