The only dumb question is the one not asked.

True, but only the first time. People often struggle with perl data structures and related syntaxt. Now asking for help on how to get to "bill" in

$a = [
   {
     a => {
         b => 'bill',
     },
   },
];
[download]

is fine once. But seeing that person come the next day and ask how to get to "bill" in

$a = [
   {
     a => [
            {
               b => 'bill',
            },
     ],
   },
];
[download]

is simply not cool. At some point you have to read perldata, perllol ... and learn the syntaxt yourself. Reading is a fundamental way of learning, and if you refuse to read, why should people help you? (you're gonna read their replies anyway, so you might as well read the manual instead, it's where the replies come from)