This document discusses practical aspects of natural language processing (NLP) work. It contrasts research work, which involves setting goals, devising algorithms, training models, and testing accuracy, with development work, which focuses on implementing algorithms as scalable APIs. The document emphasizes that obtaining data is crucial for NLP and describes sources for structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. It recommends Lisp as a language that supports the interactivity, flexibility, and tree processing needed for NLP research and development work.