For me, programming perl is not about learning or using perl. Programming perl is a search for the "Ah hah" moment: the moment when everything crystallises and youre brain finally groks an idea. I've been lucky to be introduced to coding as a subset of the whole idea of computers/machines, because I study Electrical Engineering, not CS. I think that it's the moment of realisation that lends coding its appeal, not the particulars of what is being discussed. I get as much enjoyment from doing/studying maths and physics as I do from coding because it's the effect on ME that's important, not the results.

All code becomes superceded and all ideas about how the world works become outdated, but the process of learning is always a joy.