Also, one thing that has been happening without much awareness in the history of computer languages: shorter identifiers win over long identifiers

Why not { } instead of begin and end?

def or fn over function/lambda (or just () => now)

Symbols are confusing at first but become practical after a bit

About TFA: Also 'if/or' would make people confuse logical or with bitwise or, so I guess that's why it was eschewed