Comment by the_af

> These lisp guys really get excited over very abstract things. If you say this to an average person on the street they will probably try to run away.

Referential transparency is a funny name for a very powerful feature which helps you understand what the program does better, it's not a deeply abstract thing. Don't let the name scare you.

You could ask "why the funny name"? Well, specialized professionals use specialized jargon, even for "normal stuff". It's unreasonable to expect otherwise. Car mechanics also have weird names for car parts that are absolutely essential for the car and not that hard to understand if they explained them to you.