Don't knock trial and error. Think of it as practice. Consider learning a new human language (or your native one for that matter). You can listen to tapes and be able to call for taxis or order food in a restaurant, but you can't have any real conversations until you have some real conversations. You learn by practice because the things you read about won't really make sense until you rewrite some neural pathways by using the things you learn. If you're not knocking your head against the keyboard, you're not really trying.
Pick a project. Anything. Create a file-find utility (using File::Find) for your hard drive. Maybe index your drive. Download movie listings (WWW::Yahoo::Movies). TV Listings (figure out how to parse Yahoo TV listings -- it can be done!). Make a DVD library, including categories so you can print out a categorized list. Don't just read PerlMonks, but actually get in there and try to solve someone's problem. THEN, LATER, compare notes with what others wrote. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as you're coding. After all, if you just want to read for future success, you'll get weeded out in the first interview. Employers will ask what you've done, not what you've read.
That said, once you have some notion of how you'd like to sharpen your skills, search for things on CPAN. There is an absolutely immense number of modules written by others and uploaded. While the quality varies, all of the best modules (including all the core modules) are there. You can use them to get complicated things done, or you can check out the code. Sometimes, just the titles and/or descriptions will get you thinking about something you'd like to write yourself.
My two cents. --marmot
In reply to Re^3: Perl Skills
by furry_marmot
in thread Perl Skills
by Anonymous Monk
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