I've been apart of the Clojure community since 2010 and I'm happy that this documentary was made mainly because it highlights the significance of the contributions of someone I've never heard of before, Rich's wife Stephanie Hickey. It's obvious in how articulated she is and how just labeling her as a sounding board wouldn't do her justice. Thank you for your (for historically the most part uncredited) contributions!

Rich has stated that he will be in the chat during the premier.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richhickey_how-one-programmer...

I regret stumbling on Clojure around 2012-2013. I had every chance to learn and work on a big Clojure project with very knowledgeable people yet I looked dead in its eye, right between the parentheses and confidently said: "no, thank you!". It took me a few more years of enormous struggle with Javascript, and after exhausting my options, trying Typescript, Coffeescript, Livescript, Gorillascript, IcedCoffeeScript, Fay, Haste, GHCJS, Elm to finally arrive on Clojurescript. Even though I was dealing with frontend at that time, I already had good experience, and had gone through other stacks: .Net - C#, F#, VB; Python; Haskell; Objective-C; ActionScript; Delphi; some other lesser-known things.

I remember my initial confusion, but it didn't take long when I suddenly felt flabbergasted - shit just made sense. It was so down-to-earth, inexplicably pragmatic and reasonable that it made me want to learn more. I didn't even build anything with it, I was just browsing through related Google search results when I saw "Clojure/Remote Conf" announcement. It was a no-brainer - I took a day off and joined from my home computer. I immediately became a fan-boy. The amount of crazy awesome stuff I saw, the people I met in the chats, the articles and books I put in my notes - all that made me feel excited. After the conference I sat in my chair staring at the blank screen, for 40 minutes or so. Thinking, meditating, contemplating if that was a mid-career crisis or something. Knowing that on Monday I would have to go back to the same struggle, same shit, same mess that I had for the past two years, everything that until this very point made me feel depressed. On Monday I went back to work and said I'm leaving because: "I saw things I cannot unsee". I just knew I could never sneak-in some Clojure there. So I left. Even though it was well-paid job, fifteen minutes away from my home.

Getting into Clojure radically re-opened my eyes to the entire concept of computing. Not only had I found a different way of programming - I felt so enlightened, and largely thanks to the people I met in the community, which deserves special acknowledgment. Clojurians are just made different - they are the kindest, extremely knowledgeable, tolerant and most sincere professionals I have ever met. Not a single time when I asked them a question - no matter how dumb, provocative, or confusing it was; they always, every single time gave me much deeper and thought-provoking answers than I ever expected. None of my inquiries were ever dismissed, ignored or rejected. They'd gladly discuss just about anything - no matter the language, tool, technique, or ideas. Whatever helps you to find answers or get closer to the solution. I know, I have become a better programmer, thanks to Clojure. Yet more importantly, it helped me to become a better person.

Yes, I regret stumbling on Clojure. I wish I never saw it when I wasn't ready for it. It makes me feel sad for the time I have wasted. I wish I had someone persuasive to convince me to learn it sooner. Thank you Rich Hickey and Clojure community for inspiring the fire I didn't even know I had in me.