I've been thinking about where I can go from here. I'm not a perl master by any sense of the word, but I think I've hit a learning wall in some ways. I have yet to write significant OO code or to write a decent admin toolkit. I do so many things in my everyday programming that I think I could package all of my little everyday things into a module for my personal use.

The problem with that is that it would be only for my personal use. I'm more interested in helping the perl community. I have even been considering that I should learn C so I can help with internals and understand the Perl language better. I know that using Perl requires no knowledge of C, but I want to give back. I want to bug fix, I want to beta test, and I want to submit code to lwall and others. I just don't think I could be ready for that in a decent time frame. I already know enough C to make me dangerous, but again, that won't help me feel better now.

I'm not coming up with any steps that I could use to take my knowledge of Perl to a new level. Since my main focus in my career is web servers, their logs, and different aspects of their operation, I could always just continue my dreary existence and tailor my focus in that direction. But, I also get excited about network security. I could decide to focus my skills towards developing something new and cool so I can consult on the side. None of these things would necessarily help me with my Perl coding.

I guess my only real choice is to get more experience. I don't think I know what I don't know, and that is a bad thing for someone to not know. I just can't figure out which gaps in my knowledge require attention. I know OO is reasonably important, depending upon who you ask, and I know that I should make a list of functions and modules I don't understand. I know that I should probably begin looking at internals so I have a better understanding of what goes on in the background. I need to find a project that both excites me and challenges me to code like a maniac. I need to find something that will force me to go to areas of Perldom I've previously avoided.

I know that I should be more concerned with making sure my everyday existence is supported by my code, but I want to branch out. I've heard that whole idea of a Survival or Needs Pyramid, and I think the idea is right. When one level of the pyramid is satiated, we begin to consider the higher levels. I've satiated my lower levels, but my intellectual curiousity isn't fulfilled. I need stimulation and challenge above and beyond my everyday level. I'm hoping I can find it.

In reply to I've been thinking. . . (more of a ramble than a mediation) by jjhorner

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.