[badmash69]

Can I not defer paying homage to the LISP cult until I achieve a fair amount of productivity in Clojure ?

I am learning Clojure as I work through "Clojure in Action".(Thanks to Manning's promotions-- I also have the "Joy of Clojure" ebook but I haven't opened that one yet). My complaint is that there are not enough exercises in Clojure for beginners. I recall the K&R C book -- it had exercises at the end of every chapter which were very useful. Those exercises are the reason why I can still dive in C with no fear whatsoever .

I understand Clojure's relationship to LISP ; but that doesn't have to mean that Clojure can't have its own set of programming exercises and blogs for the beginners.

But posts like OP are not helpful for beginners. And they are not helpful to Clojure ecosystem as they scare away causal learners.