100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks?

Last week I ran across a few great posts by brian d foy: How do you master Perl? and brian's Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem. I'm sure many of you have read them but they were new to me. I saw one of his recent posts and decided to check out his profile to see other things he had written. Luckily he has these listed on his profile.

I started thinking about other great posts I was missing out on. I also thought, wouldn't it be great if we had a section called "100 Most Insightful Posts" or something like that. I know for someone like me who has only been involved with Perl for less than a year these posts provide inspiration and guidance towards some long term goals. I may not understand everything that's being discussed but that's OK. Posts like these challenge my thinking especially when it comes to where I'm envisioning Perl taking me in the coming months/years.

Would others find something like this useful? What posts have you come across in the monastary and found really insightful?

Update: 10.29.2010 Thank you ELISHEVA for having this on your home node. — Very helpful!

This Post By Limbic~Region Is Very Close To What I Was Thinking

The post is from 2006 and I didn't see any recent updates. That said, as it stands the post provides a fantastic list. I think it could make a valuable addition to the Perl Monks section in the tutorials, FAQ or maybe even the Q&A.

Update: 10.28.2010 Walking The Walk
Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and suggestions. I've spent a good amount of time reading through more lists and home nodes. I decided that it was high time I put some of my favorite posts up on my own home node. So here is a copy of the links I've put up that I have found insightful/inspirational. While it's not the "100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks" I didn't want to just sit here pouting, asking for the powers that be to put a list together and not put some effort in myself. Hey, even if this thread encourages a few more of us here at the Monastery to keep our own list then that's good in and of itself — right? Anyway here's my list for now:

Monastery Insights and Inspirations

Perl documentation documentation by brian d foy
Common Beginner Mistakes by chromatic
brian's Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem. by brian d foy
Random thoughts on programming by tilly
Keeping sharp and fresh by aufflick
How do you master Perl? by brian d foy
One Point to Saint hood by coreolyn
Religion in the Monastery by ben
Larry Witticisms from perl Errors by eyepopslikeamosquito

"...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." — Don Quixote

Comment on 100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks?

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Re: 100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks? by ww (Archbishop) on Oct 25, 2010 at 00:25 UTC
On the face of it, this is an idea which sounds good. Regrettably, it runs afoul of a stumbling block common to too many proposals for improving the Monastery: who will do the work... and with what guidance defining a "Most Insightful" post? On some of the factual (but more-or-less arcane) discussions of `perlguts` we don't seem able to achieve agreement on what's fact vs. what's misconception. Something as inherently subjective as "insightful" would -- IMO -- be a far larger challenge. Update: Browsing "Selected Best Nodes" doesn't guarantee you'll find insight (some of the posts there earned their reputation for clear exposition or clever algorithm, and some may even be inaccurate) but the list overall surely includes enough highly rated posts to keep a reader busy or amused and, at least occasionally, blessed with insights.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: 100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks? by roboticus (Chancellor) on Oct 25, 2010 at 01:46 UTC
luis.roca As ww said, it would be a lot of work to put together that list, even though many here would love to see it. Then, of course, it would be difficult to come to common agreement on the items in the list. On the bright side, though, we have a very nice resource here: The home nodes of monks! You'll frequently find some really interesting questions and/or responses from monks (such as from ww, your first responder), and visiting their home node will often give you a list of what they find particularly interesting or insightful. After all, if they say one thing that's interesting, chances are that they've probably: (a) said other interesting things, and (b) have linked some very interesting articles to their home nodes. ...roboticus	[reply]
Re: 100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks? by ambrus (Abbot) on Oct 25, 2010 at 11:08 UTC
Funniest Nodes of 2004 is only vaguely related.	[reply]
Re: 100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks? by zentara (Cardinal) on Oct 25, 2010 at 18:49 UTC
It would seem easy to do by adding a search field in SuperSearch, to search by Node Reputation ( number of positive votes). Then the 100 highest voted nodes should appear. I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh	[reply]
Re^2: 100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks? by Argel (Prior) on Oct 25, 2010 at 21:29 UTC
Except that node rep has more to do with when/if the node was front-paged, etc. than how good the node/thread is. For example, wouldn't the infamous Paco thread be near (or at) the top? Others may not even be directly related to Perl -- e.g. my highest rated node is Do Not Feed the Trolls!!! and my second highest is Nodelets on the left?. Update: added link to Paco thread. Elda Taluta; Sarks Sark; Ark Arks	[reply]
Re: 100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks? by luis.roca (Deacon) on Oct 25, 2010 at 15:37 UTC
ww roboticus You're both right that it is very subjective but I don't think the difficulty would necessarily outweigh the benefit or that it even has to be so hard at first. The list does not have to be set in stone. It doesn't have to be perfect. I don't think anyone could realistically expect it to be. It can and should be fluid. Even if there was a list that everyone could contribute and argue over that in and of itself would make for a good discussion. My concern is for posts like Brian's that either don't fit in to a given category or have drifted off a category's main page become tough to find.(Posts we may not know to look for — if that makes sense.) Maybe it does make for a better incentive to visit individual profiles and that's great. If this took away from exploring profiles it would certainly be a big downside. (IMO) However, I don't see the harm in trying if enough people would find it useful. If it fails it fails. But to at least begin by asking: "What's a good Perl insight?" I'd love to know what other people think the answer to that question is and see if we can apply it to posts we feel meet that criteria. "...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." — Don Quixote	[reply]
Re: 100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks? by NateTut (Deacon) on Oct 27, 2010 at 17:36 UTC
Perhaps we could capture the Daily/Weekly/Monthly Best nodes and have a page to browse them. I find they often contain some of the most interesting conversations.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: 100 Most Insightful Posts on Perl Monks? by Gavin (Archbishop) on Oct 28, 2010 at 07:27 UTC
"Perhaps we could capture the Daily/Weekly/Monthly Best nodes and have a page to browse them. I find they often contain some of the most interesting conversations." It already exists.	[reply]