I pretty much agree with everything you wrote--but would I buy the book? Probably not. It would be like me buying a book on how to tie my shoes.

Not that I always, or even regularly followed all those tenents when I was in the position to have to. I intended to, but we all know about good intetions. Then again, I haven't worn shoes with laces for 20+ years either.

The problem with this type of book is you need public track record for it to be of great interest. If Carlos Ghosn wrote a "how to manage..." book, people would probably cough up and read it.

With respect to Train as you fight. That's another way of saying "practice makes perfect". For applicability in perl, I suggest it could be translated into stuff like 'code your throw aways and one offs the same way you should code your production apps'. Always indent properly. Pass parameters to/from subs instead of using globals. etc.

Most people write more one-offs than they do production apps and if you get into the habit of using bad practices in your one-offs, the temptation to skip the good techniques in your production apps when time is pressing (Isn't it always!), just becomes to strong.

If a soldier trains as if it were real, he is more likely to react in the correct way when the chips are down.