Why I’m Productive in Clojure
Power and Simplicity
I find that I often get excited about learning a new language, but after I use it for a while it inevitably loses its luster. Eventually, it becomes just another language in my toolbox.
One exception to this rule is Clojure. I still enjoy using the language as much as I did when I first learned it. The reason — it strikes the right balance between power and simplicity.
The Balance of Power
Some languages are simple but they’re also verbose. You’ve probably heard people say that verbosity really doesn’t matter. These people will go to great lengths to point out that all languages are Turing complete and that in certain languages you simply have to write a bit more code.
I think that’s missing the point, however. The question is not whether something can be expressed in principle. It’s how well the language maps to the problem being solved. One language will let you think in terms of your problem domain, while another will force you to translate the problem to its constructs.
The latter is often tedious and rarely enjoyable. You end up writing a lot of boilerplate code and constantly repeating yourself. I hope you’ll agree that there is a certain amount of irony involved in having to write repetitive code.
