After a month of building a static site generator, the author switched from GNU Make to Clojure and found the language surprisingly ergonomic. The new codebase runs on the JVM, letting the developer reuse Java libraries without learning the language in depth. It also demonstrates how an approach can replace shell pipelines, improving reproducibility.

Compared with Common Lisp, Clojure presents a tighter abstraction layer. Its seq interface lets a single function handle lists, vectors, maps and sets, eliminating the need for multiple predicates like mapcar or remove‑if‑not. Equality collapses to a single ‘=’ operator, sidestepping Lisp’s maze of eq, eql and equalp. Persistent structures enable cheap branching, easing state.

The author notes that Clojure’s standard library and tools such as babashka make scripting fast and pleasant, prompting a shift from experimental to production use. Remaining friction points include bracket‑heavy syntax and occasional Java interop learning. He also appreciates Clojure’s immutable collections for reducing bugs in concurrent scripts. The developer plans to continue experimenting, currently tackling Project Euler problems in Clojure to deepen fluency.