[cmpaul]

Forth was my first programming language for work from 1999-2004 at FedEx, developing the software used by the courier scanning device the Enhanced SuperTracker (EST) -- which was used in production between 1987 and 2007... 20 years! I still look back fondly on it for battle-hardening me on recursion and the function stack. I still marvel at the ability of the language to "fold in" on itself when compiled, resulting in a miniscule binary footprint. Also, since you define your own "words" (or functions), it supports a DSL approach to coding... no syntax to learn, you write your own!

One of my favorite descriptions of Forth:

"There is no syntax, no redundancy, no typing. There are no errors that can be detected. Forth uses postfix, there are no parentheses. No indentation. Comments are deferred to the documentation. No hooks, no compatibility. Words are never hyphenated. There's no heirarchy. No files. No operating system."

http://www.colorforth.com/1percent.html

EDIT: I survived and currently work at a YC company and do not have a neck-beard.