I decided to post this node for a few reasons. Firstly, there have been a number of nodes talking about how Perl relates to other pursuits -- many of which are considered noble or philosophical. Throughout my life and career, I have found that far too much emphasis is placed on "this new, insightful way of thinking". So, my first intent was to illustrate that very old ideas can still apply to very modern pursuits.

Secondly, I've studied the Tao Te Ching for a good chunk of my life; I've applied my own interpretation of it to my system designs -- and while I still have much to learn about software design (and Perl), I feel that applying it has made me a better developer.

Thirdly, part of my job is training others. The day will come when I will have to train a department on solid coding practices. Having "gimmicks" like this that help teach and help students retain is useful. I hope to refine the analogy through discussion.

And, finally, I find it fun and useful to put my ideas onto a forum to have them picked apart. Maybe it doesn't teach me Perl, but since a node like this contains bias resulting from my personal outlook, I have found that I am able to find flaws in my outlook through discussing it.

As for the last line, I use CGI on a regular basis, and a lot of people still use it for simple web applications. It hasn't outlived its usefulness, yet. ;-)