I've only been using perl for a few months and am still in the 'refer to O'Reilly every 1/2 hour' phase.
Already when I look at my early scripts, I can see how much I've learn't in that time. Even so, every day I learn another 20 things that make me go Wow!
Like yourself I usually come across these snippets of wisdom by accident when looking for something else or trying to solve an unrelated problem. However, each day my scripts get cleaner, neater and a little closer to what can be regarded virtuous perl.