I like to do exploratory coding in an interactive shell, then when I've accomplished something, save the readline history to a file and refactor it into a reusa

I like to do exploratory coding in an interactive shell, then when I've accomplished something, save the readline history to a file and refactor it into a reusable module with tests. This works in both Ruby and Python. Over the years I've developed a pretty good sense for when I've gone too far down a dead end. Some people try and dig their way out, I prefer to just turn around. It helps when you delay the design stage as much as possible. Makes it easier to let bad ideas go.