One day while avoiding working on something important, I spent half a day learning Perl in order to implement something related to a build tool that was being used in the important thing I was avoiding.

I was blown away. It's a really delightful language. Its big downfall is that it makes it feel good to do something "clever."

Perl is a joy to write, and a devil to read. I liked it, and wish I had started my career earlier so I could have enjoyed Perl in its heyday.

I have similar feelings about Ruby.