I realize I was ambiguous; I didn't mean to say "just use assertions and panics", I meant "just use assertions and panics for unexpected errors", my apologies.

I realize I was ambiguous; I didn't mean to say "just use assertions and panics", I meant "just use assertions and panics for unexpected errors", my apologies. I wouldn't recommend someone only use Result<T, E> and never panic. If we do, then anything that might indirectly be invalid, such as a map lookup or an array index, will have ? operators on it, often every line of some functions. In the end, our control flow is just as unpredictable as if we just used panics and our signal is lost in the noise. For this reason, I think a blend of Result<T, E> and panics/assertions is really the way to go.