I first did Perl coding back in 1997, but I was just maintaining and extending a database-driven site that somebody else wrote. I moved on to other languages for other purposes (embedded assembly, dedicated C/PicoBSD on headless x86 boxes, PHP+MySQL+Apache, etc). Now, I'm using Perl extensively at Sandia for a dozen different things.

The key for me is that with Perl+CPAN+FreeBSD, I'm so darn productive! Perl truly is a Swiss Army knife! Yes, you sometimes end up denting your fingers when using it to pry open something, but you do get it pried open. I think that the raw power of the language, coupled with the growing CPAN archive that goes in all sorts of directions, and the underlying power and flexibility of FreeBSD, is a path to really being a useful programmer. I've only been doing Perl for two months here, but already I've been able to take peoples' breath away with simple applications of Perl and GD.

To me, it's just hammering nails, but to them it's making their data visible and usable, and doing it quickly.