The 12 stages of learning Clojure

In 2020, I've been on quite a learning journey. I joined a team where we write code in Clojure, a very different language from what I’m used to. It turns out writing Clojure is a very nice developer experience, but it could take a while to get it.

You might have to go through some (or all) of the 12 stages of learning Clojure.

😮
1. "I have no idea what I'm looking at."

😬
2. "Where does that code end? Where does it begin? Why are there so many parentheses?"

🤪
3. "I'm totally lost."

😳
4. "Will I ever learn? Am I smart enough?"

😭
5. "I will never learn. I'm not smart enough. I want ice cream!"

🤔
6. "Hmmm, wait a minute ... map, reduce, filter. This is something I recognize."

🙂
7. "Yes. Clojure, yes, yes."

🤯
8. "OMG, this language is so powerful. OMG, I even understand some of it."

🙃
9. "defn, keywords, multi-methods, macros, juxt, slurp, ha ha ha ha ..."

😀
10. "Pretty clean. Yeah, I've learned the keyboard shortcut to nicely format the code. And threading macros are nice!"

😍
11. "I ❤️ Clojure. Everything about it makes sense. It's is the language I've been searching for all my life."

🧘
12. "Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend." *

You might wonder what stage I'm currently in. Well, probably somewhere between 🙂 and 😀.

Here's some of the sources that I have learned a lot from:

• Clojure for the brave and true
• Programming Clojure
• ClojureScript Koans
• Elements of Clojure
• Learn Reagent

I'm sure I will keep trying, failing, learning and mostly smiling in 2021 ✨

^{* Yes, Bruce Lee said that.}