"'Back in the day', early Clojure adopters would ask one to read SICP before asking questions."

I was in the Clojure usenet from very early on and do not recall this happening. That's not to say that it never happened but it was certainly not a common response to questions. Instead, I remember early adopters like Chris Houser, Chas Emerick, Phil Hagelberg, and many others taking a lot of time to help people who had questions with the language.