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Perl's decline was cultural

(www.beatworm.co.uk)
393 points todsacerdoti | 1 comments | 06 Dec 25 17:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.346s | source
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jordanb ◴[06 Dec 25 18:16 UTC] No.46175337[source]▶
I always found the Perl "community" to be really off-putting with all the monk and wizard nonsense. Then there was the whole one-liner thing that was all about being clever and obscure. Everything about Python came off as being much more serious and normal for a young nerd who wasn't a theater kid.
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Insanity ◴[06 Dec 25 19:00 UTC] No.46175715[source]▶
I don’t know about the wider Perl community, but I listened to some interviews from Larry Wall and he just came across as a nerdy guy having fun with what he’s doing. I quite liked listening to him.
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1. ascendantlogic ◴[06 Dec 25 20:14 UTC] No.46176269[source]▶
Individuals are rarely (not never, but rarely) the full problem. Groups of people are what cause feedback loops and cultural reinforcement like the author describes. Sometimes this is a virtuous reinforcement cycle but more often than not the well gets poisoned over time.