"Changes can be annoying: moving to a new home, finding the shelves reorganized at your neighborhood computer store, or ordering your favorite beer at your favorite pub only to be told they don't make it anymore. But changes can also be good: a vacation on the beach, a promotion, a raise, finding the perfect shortcut to work that shaves 20 minutes off your commute. This book is all about change . . . "

weird anecdote:

"An hour into the discussion, around the time most people nod off in any meeting, Jon Orwant (the reserved, universally respected editor of the Perl Journal) stepped quietly into the room and snapped everyone to attention with an entirely uncharacteristic and well-planned gesture. Smash! A coffee mug hit the wall. "We are *@$!-ed (Crash!) unless we can come up with something that will excite the community (Pow!), because everyone's getting bored and going off and doing other things! (Bam!)" (At least, that's basically how Larry tells it. As is usually the case with events like this, no one remembers exactly what Jon said.)"

"Even though the primary audience of Perl code is a machine, humans have to read the code while they're writing, reviewing, or maintaining it."