You are right — the return thing is very silly. What about this: def greet(…, bow=False): … if bow: take_a_bow() Except imagine take_a_bow()

You are right — the return thing is very silly. What about this: def greet(…, bow=False): … if bow: take_a_bow() Except imagine take_a_bow() instead as 10 lines of code to perform the post-greeting bow-ceremony. That code takes additional arguments regarding what kind of hand flourish to perform while bowing. The flourish_type has to be an optional argument to greet (because bow is) but inside the bow you have to assert flourish_type is not None because you can’t bow without knowing what flourish to give. I’ve seen some dark stuff over the years. Also: Welcome to HN!