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Discussion on: You Either Have It Or You Don't

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Ben Lovy

That makes a lot of sense - from what I've read form him, Clojure seems like it was almost a knee-jerk reaction from a career Java engineer who was losing his mind, and wanted something that addresses his own perceived shortcomings.

I have not yet written enough of anything to lose my mind about it. Context is important.

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Andy Fingerhut

Maybe this isn't what you meant, but to check, I looked up the dictionary of "knee-jerk" to find it defined as "automatic and unthinking". I think Rich Hickey's approach to Clojure has been anything but that. Deliberate, careful, nuanced, yes. Always fully explained in an instant to everyone who goes looking for answer to why Clojure is the way it is? Definitely not.

I see a theme in all of his work as how to avoid complexity, especially unnecessary complexity that many aspects of software development create.

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Ben Lovy • Edited

Absolutely, you're completely right. I more meant as a reaction borne from desperation to make what he felt was an unworkable environment into a workable one, but you're right, it was a poorly chosen phrase for the resultant product.