Any error return values in go must be assigned to a variable at call time, otherwise it's a compile error. Nonsense. fmt.Println("Hello world!") I just ig

Any error return values in go must be assigned to a variable at call time, otherwise it's a compile error. Nonsense. fmt.Println("Hello world!") I just ignored an error and it compiles fine. Go check the return type of Println: https://golang.org/pkg/fmt/#Println https://golang.org/pkg/fmt/#Println tl;dr, it's very easy to accidentally ignore errors in functions that are side-effecting or modify parameters. Been there, done that.