I’ve come to love reading essays by Paul Graham and Joel Spolsky about programming and the business of programming. Their writing is excellent, their topics interesting and practical, their substance deep and intelligent, their style natural and accessible, their meaning clear and concise. I especially enjoy reading Graham because he demonstrates the practical advantages of functional programming, and Lisp in particular, through anecdotes of his own experience starting a software company and wiping the floor with his competitors. I’ve almost come to appreciate the fact that most programmers are clueless about functional programming because of Graham. I say almost because it only helps you if you work for yourself, which I currently do not. If you’re a programmer, I highly recommend grazing their essays on a lunch break.