This is what struck me as most significant.

I'll be doing my best to recover from the stresses of the past 21 months, and to plan and develop my training business, and -- most importantly -- to spend as much time as I possibly can with my beloved wife.

Dr. Conway has spent almost two years with limited contact with his wife. He has given far more to the Perl community than he has taken. I thoroughly applaud his decision to spend time on what's really important -- himself and his family. We work to live, not live to work.

As for discussing language issues via email, I don't think he would have been as productive. Nothing can possibly match the dynamics of a face-to-face conversation. While it is sometimes necessary to communicate remotely, this should not be done for extensive work and brainstorming. Email gets delayed, context is misunderstood, assumptions are made and, for lack of time, are not clarified. I can't even begin to guess how many times I've had to follow up on some electronic communication with a either a clarification, or worse, a fire extinguisher to quench the unanticipated flames.

And to Dr. Conway: thank you for all of the work you have done.

Cheers,
Ovid

Join the Perlmonks Setiathome Group or just click on the the link and check out our stats.