He indirectly recognized the importance of declaring the shape of data 6 years later by introducing spec, which to date still has big issues and screams "just use a proper statically typed language".
Everytime I read your name, you subtile spread some negativity :)
Maybe Hickey just didn't prioritized "types" as high as some other ideas to spend his time on. And in my opinion he focused on the right things and achieved something really great.
As general advice stay positiv, focus on the things you like instead of telling everyone what you don't like, it's better for your mental health ;)
> spec, which to date still has big issues and screams "just use a proper statically typed language"
I think this statement is unfair.
I don't think there is a widely used statically typed language that is nearly as expressive and simple as spec. Also the opt-in nature of it retains the advantages of dynamic typing.
There's no "proper statically typed language." Every single statically typed language I tried, comes with certain drawbacks. However, I'd like to add - I do miss sometimes static types in dynamic langs, including Clojure. Bottom line - there are truly no silver bullets. That's why we keep inventing new programming languages and new paradigms. But of course, once we pick up one "religion," we feel compelled to yell at others: "you're doing it wrong!"
