When I was hired for my first Perl job, I only knew what SQL looked like -- not how to use it. Within a couple of days, I was up to speed enough to pull reports from Oracle, MySQL, and that other proprietary database, all using Perl's DBI. The SQL language is very straightforward, making it possible for absolute novices to get things done now and save the subtleties for later.

Wasn't it Larry himself who said, "What you don't know won't hurt you... much?"