The point isn't that everything is recursive - the point is that systems that are recursive / self-referential cause breakdowns in logic (they are incomplete).

This is a deep philosophical insight - it rhymes with the Buddhist idea of no-self - the problems that arise because we hold onto a false sense of self.

So what is the correct way to think about refactoring?

Should code that is delivering results, but is hard for others to understand & work on be refactored?

I wrote an article covering three Bash commands that I find very useful - parameter expansion, `$_` and quick substitution.

Many of you will already use these - hopefully it is useful to a few of you!

$! might be even more common -- "last argument to last command".

I forgot to put the non-paywall link! It's here - https://medium.com/better-programming/3-uncommon-bash-tricks...

This is an example of Jevon's Paradox - increases in the efficiency of use of a resource lead to increases in consumption of that resource - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

I wrote about this here - https://adgefficiency.com/jevons-paradox/