I have seen many CS curriculums and learning suggestions for new programmers that call for the aspiring programmer to study a lisp interpreter that is specifically written in lisp.  All these sites say things similar to, its an intellectual revelation, it is an enlightenment experience every serious programmer should have, or it shows you hardware/software relationships, and other vague statements, particularly from this article taken from this reputable how-to.The general sentiment of my question is, how does lisp achieve the above goals and why lisp?  Why not some other language?  I am asking this because I just finished writing a scheme interpreter in scheme (taken from SICP http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/ ) and now I am writing a python interpreter in scheme and I am struggling to have this legendary epiphany that is supposed to come specifically from the former.  I am looking for specific technical details between the two languages that I can exploit in their scheme interpreters to gain understanding about how programs work.   More specifically:Why is the study of an interpreter that is written in the language it interprets so emphasized - is it merely a great mental exercise to keep the original language and built language straight or are there specific problems whose solutions can only be found in the nature of the original language?How do lisp interpreters demonstrate good architecture concepts for one's future software design?What would I miss if I did this exercise in a different language like C++ or Java?What is the most used takeaway or mental tool from this exercise? **** I selected the answer I did because I have noticed that I have gained from this exercise more skill in designing parsing tools in my head than any other single tool and I would like to find different methods of parsing that may work better for the scheme interpreter than the python interpreter. 
Why is studying an lisp interpreter in lisp so important?
self improvement;language design;lisp;language features;interpreters
At the risk of giving a me too answer, if you try it you'll see...If you study computer languages, you're likely to get the impression that it's at least half about parsing.If you learn Lisp, you'll realize parsing the surface syntax is nothing more than a convenience for people (like most of us) who don't like Lots of Irritating Single Parentheses.Then you could realize that a big price was paid for that convenience.In Lisp it is trivial for a program to build another program and execute it.In other languages it is an advanced technique, like doing multiplication in roman numerals.Of course, nearly everybody would ask who needs to do that?Well, you could very well see that it opens up a whole vista of things you never even realized you couldn't do before.You can do it in other languages, but not nearly so easily.INSERTED to answer Izkata comment:The SHRDLU natural-language-understanding program worked by translating an English statement or question into a program in a Lisp dialect called MICRO-PLANNER and executing it.  Programs that manipulate programs, for example to simplify them or prove them correct are naturally written in Lisp.  I used program generation in a program to comprehend visual scenes, where it had to deal with all the symmetries capable in 3-dimensional objects, without multiplying the code.  Anything having to do with logic and theorem-proving deals in manipulating logical expressions, which are a form of program.  Symbolic math, such as symbolic integral or differential calculus, involves manipulating math expressions, which are like miniature programs.  Any problem involving code generation, or the more highbrow term partial evaluation, is natural in Lisp. I did this for a database bridge program a long time ago. I did it in C, which was not as easy as Lisp, but I got the idea from Lisp. That was regarded as a technique that almost nobody could do at that time (especially the COBOL-heads). Maybe more now, I hope.  ... that's just a few ...Then you realize some things that are considered modern today have been old-hat in Lisp for 40-some years.Like functional programming.Like garbage collection.Like closures.That's not to say modern languages don't have new good ideas, like OOP, etc.But if you learn Lisp it will broaden your perspective.