A question that had long intrigued me, and I look forward to the responses. vladb, thank you for introducing it.

As to a statement or theme, while I do not use a signature line at the moment, an observant reader of my humble posts and responses would likely find the "theme" to be a quote from Robert A. Heinlein's character Valentine Michael Smith (VMS) from Stranger in a Strange Land, "I am but an egg."

For those unaware of the plot, the book is about VMS, who was discovered after being raised by Martians, the child of two members of the first, failed mission to Mars, and traces the misadventures as he must learn how to be "human" after being brought back to Earth an adult. In Heinlein's books involving Martians, the Martians' life cycle is described as progressing through several stages, from the youngest (an egg) to the oldest (the Old Ones) who no longer require a body and can decide when they wish to cease.

I seem to find, when looking around the Monastery, a similar spectrum, from other eggs and fellow nestlings to our vaunted Old Ones who are not afraid to share their wisdom and guidance (and even, sadly, some who have for now decided to discorporate). I also find that I know just enough to realize I have much to learn (for starters, OOP, "-wT and use strict," security, network and interface coding, modules and packages, and much, much more) before it should be safe for me to stand up in the nest of good coding, much less crawl from it.