Getting started with Python and Lisp

A few weeks ago I talked with a friend studying computer science who I discovered had never experienced the joy of programming with a high level language. Not only that but he didn't have the first clue what he was missing. I feared without my immediate intervention another perfectly good mind would be wasted in programming hell. At his university they were using Java for nearly everything so he had somehow gotten the terribly mistaken idea that it didn't really matter what programming language one used. I carefully explained that:

To Lisp or not to Lisp, that is the question.

Musings on Lisp by a routinely Pythonic programmer

Last week I did some maintenance on various Python projects I haven't touched in years (literally), and I was surprised by how easy, almost trivial it was to reorient myself and make the necessary changes.

That observation came at the right time because I've been reading up on Lisp dialects for a while now and questioning whether or not I should be programming in Lisp instead. Lisp enthusiasts (converts?) certainly make persuasive arguments, typically advocating Lisp as the one-true-language with near religious zeal.