The irony being you can learn Lisp in 60 minutes. You'll just be programming the same way you've always been just now you'll be using Lisp. You won't be doing any metaprogramming, creating macros and the like but you'll be able to Get Stuff Done. You just won't necessarily be any more productive.<p>What takes so long to learn is the Bottom-Up style of programming Lisp promotes, made even more powerful by it's homoiconicity. Paul Graham explains it here: <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/progbot.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/progbot.html</a>