Acknowledgments

So many people helped me birth this weird baby, and I am humbled and grateful for all their support.

First, thanks to Jess, my wife, for doing the illustrations that complete this book, giving it the visual character I had hoped for. Thanks, too, for the support and for putting up with me when I was in crazy-eyed writer mode. (P.S. It feels bizarre to thank my wife via a programming book’s front matter.)

Thanks to my friends and colleagues at McKinsey who read early revisions and encouraged me to keep writing. Foremost among them are Pat Shaughnessy, Alex Rothenberg, Thomas Newton, Jalil Fanaian, Chris Parker, Mark Daggett, Christian Lilley, and Mike Morreale. Y’all are so great; please move to Durham.

Thanks to my friend Bridget Hillyer for being a constant source of support and positivity. I always feel like you have my back, and it means a lot to me! Thanks, too, to my friend Joe Jackson, for reading, listening to me blather, and offering feedback, and for making me feel cool by gushing about this book to other people in front of me. Alan Dipert, friend, tech reviewer, and now coworker, I give thee a million thanks for your excellent technical editing and for introducing me to Clojure in the first place.

I don’t know if every writer continually asks himself, “Why the hell am I doing this? Is anyone even going to read it?” but I certainly did. So I want to thank all the friendly folks who wrote to me and suggested edits while the initial web version of this book was being written. That positive feedback made me feel confident that I was doing something worthwhile. By the same token, thanks to everyone who bought the Leanpub version!

A big thank you to Clojure community leaders Eric Normand, David Nolen, and Alex Miller for giving this book positive press. See you at the next Conj!

Finally, a bazillion thank yous to the magnificent folks at No Starch Press for all your help in shaping this book into something I’m immensely proud of. Thank you for your high standards. Thank you for continually pushing for greater clarity, and for even suggesting jokes. (Seph’s “ball of wax” edit still makes me crack up.) Seph Kramer, Riley Hoffman, Hayley Baker, Alison Law, Tyler Ortman, Anne Marie Walker: thank you!