I'm going to ignore the attitude for the moment. Perhaps you misunderstand what I was requesting.

How do I work with Perl references? is to perldoc perlref as What are some approaches I can take while writing code to ensure it is efficient? is to _______________

Lots of others have pointed out some very good books and other various online resources, which is basically what I was looking for. Yes, I see that your Devel::OpProf module can be useful in post-development optimization, but I was looking for something more along the lines of education. I apologize if that was unclear, but I don't appreciate the smart-alec attitude.