Comment by kaffiene

I have another theory: look at some recent very successful and popular languages - Javascript, Ruby, Java, Visual Basic. Now, these all vary in expressiveness and 'power' but they all have something in common - they're all very simple. Simple to use, simple to use, easy to read.

Could you seriously imagine the users of those languages just picking up Lisp and using it instead of those other languages? I can't. Lisp is harder to read and harder to get your head around (I've programmed in CL and Clojure, I even wrote a simple 'Lisp-lite-script' for log processing at one work place, so I LIKE the language, ok?) Being an individually more 'powerful' language is not the same as being a good language for teams of people to collaborate with. When dealing with other people, simplicity, readability are important - Java and Ruby are excellent in this regard.

I also think many many people underestimate how hard it is to make a language that is simple, yet powerful. I think it's relatively easy to throw every feature under the sun into a language and get something which is 'powerful' but a nightmare to maintain or integrate with (think C++). Again, in this regard, I think both Ruby and Java did an excellent job.

Of course, most of HN seems to pray at the Church of Lisp, so I'm sure your mileage might vary :o)