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by DanWeinreb 6586 days ago
That's an amusing idea, but it is not the case. I used Lisp extensively at the MIT AI Lab, at Symbolics (I was a founder), and now at ITA Software. The people worked together as teams very well in all places. The fact that you're using Lisp does not change the need to work together on design, conventions, architecture, etc, not to mention code reviews. The only top-grade hacker I ever worked with who could not work with others was using C++ (not that I think it matters).
1 comments

"I used Lisp extensively at the MIT AI Lab, at Symbolics (I was a founder), and now at ITA Software. The people worked together as teams very well in all places."

That probably tells more about the people and environment of MIT AI Lab, Symbolics and ITA Software than the team dynamics of Lisp.

I don't claim this to be a hard and fast rule. It is obviously not impossible for Lispers to work together. My theory is just that Lisp tends to attract non-team-players more than C does, and the macro effect of this is that in the main C wins. There will, of course, be exceptions.