Sometimes (always?!) putting too much power into one person's hands is dangerous. Example: the failure of the LISP programming language over the years, as noted here before (cf. WorseIsBetter (2003-12-23), LISP Lover (2009-10-26), etc.). Rudolf Weinstock's 2011 essay "The LISP Curse" hammers the point home. If any individual can build an extraordinarily expressive, extensible system, then such clever hacks proliferate that nothing is maintainable, usable, or in some cases even comprehensible by programmers of mere ordinary levels of genius. So LISP systems don't catch on, and sub-standard but standardized languages do.

(cf. ThinkingToolsGoals (1999-04-09), HigherLevelLanguage (2007-08-17); kudos to Alex Schröder for pointing out Rudolf Weinstock's essay) - ^z - 2012-11-17