in reply to •Re: What is the most important thing you learned from Perl?
in thread What is the most important thing you learned from Perl?

I believe making a living while helping others ranks on top of maslow's hierarchy of human needs (pyramid). By helping, I mean really helping, as in empowering people. A prosecutor may think he's helping (petty) criminals by throwing them into jail. Prison is at most punishment for the crime, never help. Sometimes fair punishment, most times unfair. This is drifting a little OT here, but I have to say it. Seen on some TV reality-channel: a lawyer of an executed death row inmate (ex-man?) couldn't find anything to say to his surviving relatives other than "life is unjust".

Speaking for myselef, Perl gave an infusion of wizardry to my otherwise mundane, laic person. I feel like I'm the guy with the coolest tool box on the construction site. Now I wear my hat with some sort of ... pride -- is this the word? Not too much, I haven't yet finished the Camel Book (though I went through your Llama book and did all the exercises :-) ). I feel like I'm absobing Perl like a sponge in this stage!

To put it all in one utterance: magic flows, pours, oozes, is absorbed. it is a fluid.

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•Re: Re: Re: What is the most important thing you learned from Perl?
by merlyn (Sage) on Oct 20, 2003 at 18:55 UTC
    Thank you for the compliment.

    Having said that, I find Maslow's Pyramid to be overly complex. There are simpler models that are actually a bit more profound, and offer a bit more insight into things Maslow cannot explain. But alas, I lack the room in this margin to retype 30 years of my research. {grin}

    -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
    Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

[reply]

      A dormant thread, I know, but searching for Maslow while preparing a meditation led me here.

      Do you have online references to these simpler, more profound, models? Very keen to see them, being a lay observer of the human/perlmonk condition. Even just names would help. Cheers.

       

[reply]

        Im not one who posted on this thread, and I do not even pretend to be an accomplished several-decades researcher on the topic, however I'd like to throw in a link

        hartman personal values

        I am not affiliated with these folks and the only endorsement I offer is: 1)It was featured on NPR 'This American Life'; 2) I personally took the assessment and was impressed by the noteworthy simplicity and effectiveness of the evaluation, based on my own knowledge and background in the area. You said you're interested in this type of thing, so there you go.

        FWIW.

[reply]

In Section Meditations