http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/16/larry_wall_perl_6/

And then there's the first moment of inspiration (in 2000, that is, 14 years ago):

http://www.developer.com/lang/perl/article.php/3076571/Perl-...

"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!)” (...)

Within a few hours the group settled on Perl 6, a complete rewrite of Perl. The plan wasn´t just a language change, just an implementation change,or just a social change. It was a paradigm shift. Perl 6 would be the community´s rewrite of Perl, and the community´s rewrite of itself."