Re: Recommendations for a self-taught Perl programmer

Think of some problem that you really want to understand, and write a perl module for it on your own time. Keep changing your code, just to experiment with different ideas that are explained in the great books about Perl. Eventually you will create a great module. Then show it to your co-workers, and see if they agree. If they have different ideas, you will be able to try them out in only a few hours because by then you will have so much experience with the problem.

The idea is this: to be good, you have to be an expert at something.

The challenge is to choose a problem that you will really enjoy solving. Don't be afraid to take on a few different problems and drop them until you find one that you like.

Then, do it again in an area of interest that is far from your everyday. This will stimulate your creativity! Repeat forever.

It should work perfectly the first time! - toma

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Re^2: Recommendations for a self-taught Perl programmer
by shmem (Chancellor) on Nov 18, 2006 at 15:46 UTC

The idea is this: to be good, you have to be an expert at something.

I don't know whether this is right or wrong, as I myself also tend to think this way; but my experience tries to teach me otherwise, and sometimes I can hardly believe it. I keep thinking that I'm sort of a conman in computing, whilst my colleagues and customers tell otherwise.

I don't have any formal CS education as well, and I am no expert in any field. But I'm a good trouble-shooter. Show me a box I don't know that has some problem, and in half an hour I'll have the general direction of where the problem might be, and maybe also some accurate hints for things to look at. I'm pretty much a generalist, and in each field I try to do my best in, there are experts which I admire and whose knowledge I'll never reach. I know to ask the right questions sometimes, and I'm good at coming up with funny ideas...

But expertise is not always required, as in the profession I come from - architecture. A good architect has a good handful of half-baked knowledge in everything, and knows which experts to ask for specifics... but they love their profession.

And that's my point - to be good in something, love for $subject is required (even if it's a love-hate relationship at times). The rest comes along as it likes ;-)

--shmem

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}

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