That is a paraphrase from “First make it run, then make it run fast” by Brian Kernighan. I am applying this principle on learning lisp. First I just want to get the function to do what I want. Then I can use whatever I have learned about the language to make it shorter and more readable.

It also makes it easier to learn a language. You are not overloading yourself by attempting to use new syntax or ideas. You just want to get stuff done. And we need that sense of accomplishment to keep interest in a language.

So, if you are learning a language, don’t care if you are writing Java in clojure, or C# in ruby. Just get stuff done, and then, as you learn more about a language, refactor your code to use better idioms in your target language.