Prior to coming to Perl, I was paid to code in a variety of languages/tools: COBOL, EasyTrieve, Focus, UniBasic, JCL and VBA. Compared to other programmers I got my work done fast and thought I was good. Then I ran into Perl. I was amazed at how much faster I could get things done.

In coming to Perlmonks, rather than just teaching me how to solve a particular problem, Monks took the time to introduce me to computer science, something I previously had ignored. I started learning about stacks, queues, hash tables, O(n) notation, profiling, testing, etc. I'm at the point now where I've actually implemented a programming language (AI::Prolog) in Perl. The Perl community, and Perlmonks in particular, has taught me not just how to hack, but how to analyze and build systems. I wouldn't be where I am in my career today were it not for the patient and helpful people I have found here. Heck, it even got me a job in Amsterdam at one point :)

That, incidentally, is why I volunteer time for the Perl Foundation. It's my attempt to repay everyone for what they've given me. I don't always say it, but I'm very grateful to the Perl community.