[ngcc_hk]

The reason why you have to reinvent lisp when you go deep enough is that if you are not, it is getting too hard and too confusing.

[gjvc]

This is why any CS curriculum worth its salt should provide a summary of / introduction to Lisp and Smalltalk at or very near the start, so that in the second and third year of study or shortly after graduation, any encounters with so-called "voodoo" will elicit an "ah yes, sounds like CLOS MOP" response or something similar, rather than wide-eyed excitement leading to uninformed evangelism.

(Mine didn't have it, and I've been ruing it, and compensating for it, ever since.)