What makes Lisp difficult to read?
Summary
The post argues that Lisp readability is influenced by cognitive factors beyond mere familiarity, focusing on the impact of parentheses placement on parsing and comprehension. It discusses Stroop-like perceptual effects, Gestalt grouping, and mental working memory to explain why prefix notation can feel harder to read than infix or postfix styles. The author proposes design principles to improve readability and outlines comparisons between Lisp and C-style notation, with conclusions about how to better align syntax with reading and evaluation order.