… now… first of all… i am a huge fan of your luminus related work 
…i have been using it for a while now… and i am super happy with it!!! GREAT STUFF! KEEP IT UP!!!
…having said that… the arguments you outline in this post… well… they do seam, to me at least, kinda shaky… AT BEST!
now what do i mean? … well… where to begin?
so… for one thing… to me people always come first… so… to me it is never just about the argument,…NO!.. it is at least as much about the person delivering it… and so… often times… to me… “cui bono” seams like a great place to start… also mind you the following:
so… given the fact that you are highly invested into clojure yourself… that alone puts you at risk to become somewhat less objective… ( socrates was ugly, mind you )
…so it feels to me like you are trying to rationalize / justify your own preferences… which then leads to weak / questionable arguments… which you don’t really need to advance in the first place
for example…
this does not work at all!.. you could claim that clojure feels terrible and makes programmers less happy just as easily… you see… in order for this logic to make sense… it has to remain limited to the personal level… hence… this can not possibly hold water for the general case… i.e. this really isn’t convincing at all!
also… there is this huge problem with cause and effect here… you argue… companies using clojure are doing reasonably well, therefore clojure is necessarily at least on a par with other programming languages… which is a HUUUUUUUUGE leap… one that i am certainly not willing to follow… you see… not only is a programming language just one small factor in the extremely complicated puzzle that is the successful functioning / operating of even the smallest of enterprises… worse… it is not even clear… i think… if technological soundness necessarily fosters economic success… now you may say… ohh… but what he is saying is just nonsense… the causal relations are clear as day / could be!.. to which i will reply:… how do you prove to me that smoking causes cancer of the lungs?.. is that obvious?.. you may think so, but it most certainly is not!.. in fact… there have been decades of countless trials… and the definitiv answer / proof did really only come with the advent of modern genetics… because… you see… to soundly proof such correlations is a really tricky business indeed!!!
then there is this notorious problem with feedback… so you argue:
that means almost nothing at all!!! one of the main problems with it is that the people you ask are already invested in clojure and paying for it so to speak… now… let me give you another example in order to be able to better illustrate my point… suppose you were interested in the effectiveness of psychoanalytic-therapy… so… what are you gonna do?.. well… simple task you say!.. lets just ask the therapists and the patients, what they think of it!!!.. ( …and insurance should pay or not for the costs of the treatment, based on that outcome of that survey?.. ) …so you go ahead and do that… and WHAT A SURPRISE!.. you well get feedback that is overwhelmingly positive!!!.. but… so… does that mean it is effective?.. just because people involved in it like doing it?.. and because they report that it is effective?.. well… personally i do not think so … because… always keep in mind… CUI BONO!.. also i think this example in particular… it can be very insightful… since… you know… we are discussing clojure… and how well it works… but on the large scale of things… nobody really cares about that … on the other hand… an enormous amount of energy has been invested in exploring the effectiveness of psychoanalysis… yet… here is all that wikipedia is comfortable saying about that:
…now… when i read your post… and felt like i had to reply… i thought i had many more objections that needed to be raised… but now… i am afraid i have already forgotten about most of them… so… i don’t know… plus… i guess i have already made a few critical remarks now already… and also i do not wanna sound too harsh… also… i am really a huge luminus fan!
so… let’s perhaps end with a quote from oscar wilde:
“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”
which i personally like to turn into:
a lot of ( cynical? ) people seam to think … or at least argue… that price = value and popularity = quality… BUT I BEG TO DIFFER!!!
so… what does ultimately give value and meaning to our all lives?.. well… hmm… i don’t know … but there is this nice quote from zhuangzi… which is kind of fun to contemplate for a moment or two:
“All men know the use of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless!”
p.s. i just got a:
Your post was flagged as inappropriate : the community feels it is offensive, abusive, or a violation of our community guidelines.
so… now i am not really sure what to make of that… i have just re-read the community guidelines… and i am not really sure how this is supposed to be in violation of them… so… let me be very clear on this… i think very highly of Yogthos and his work!.. i have also made a few small contributions to luminus myself… i just think that the particular argument i have commented on is not a 100% convincing one… so… well… i don’t know… does Yogthos himself even think of this as being offensive?.. if so… obviously i will apologize right away!.. that was never my intention!!!