"If you look at these languages in order, Java, Perl, Python, you notice an interesting pattern. At least, you notice this pattern if you are a Lisp hacker. Each one is progressively more like Lisp."
This is the basic thought. Turns out PG wrote it more explicitly than ESR.
Comments
Like ESR said: "these languages [perl, python, ruby] subsequently become more like lisp" (paraphrasing)
Are you paraphrasing ESR paraphrasing Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming?
"Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp."
Ref: http://philip.greenspun.com/research/
P.S. This is not a comment on TFA. Congratulations to the author on making Python even more interactive.
I am not so sure anymore where I read it. This is interesting:
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-January/03...
It refers to this, I guess. http://www.paulgraham.com/lispfaq1.html?viewfullsite=1
"If you look at these languages in order, Java, Perl, Python, you notice an interesting pattern. At least, you notice this pattern if you are a Lisp hacker. Each one is progressively more like Lisp."
This is the basic thought. Turns out PG wrote it more explicitly than ESR.
Who is ESR?
Edit: Ah, it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond , found after some googling