Like the others who have responded before me, I share your pain, but am not discouraged by it. Allow me to offer a three-pronged response:

First, I would like to quote point 4 of the Cult of Done Manifesto:

Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
Or, as it is often expressed in the Perl community, "JFDI".

Second, a tale from some years ago. My father and I were chatting with his best friend, Mark, after a dinner together. I don't recall how the topic arose, but Mark asked me how I thought I rated as a programmer. I thought in silence for a moment, then answered that I was unsure of my skills. On the one hand, I have clients and former coworkers who view me as a god made manifest. On the other, I look at the broader programming community and see all these true experts who lightly discuss topics that are far beyond my comprehension and it seems like each thing I learn only reveals three more that I don't even understand the fundamentals to study. Mark - himself an accomplished man in many fields - replied, "Good. This means you are becoming a master."

Finally, my current experiences. About three weeks ago, I started up a personal project to teach myself the ways of Moose and KiokuDB. Prior to that, I was familiar with the names and what each promised, but had never tried to use either. While in #kiokudb asking a novice question one night, I found one of the greats of the Perl world asking his own novice question as he set out to learn the same things as I had.

There is no true ranking because we each find our own path and learn different things at different times. Don't worry. Be happy. And JFDI even if you don't know how.

In reply to Re: Updating my confidence in my Perl knowledge by dsheroh
in thread Updating my confidence in my Perl knowledge by Anonymous Monk

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