I'm surprised by the hostility in the comments. Also, everybody's focusing on closures, which makes sense given the article, but I think the main point is abou

I'm surprised by the hostility in the comments. Also, everybody's focusing on closures, which makes sense given the article, but I think the main point is about higher-order functions which require first-class functions (what the author calls closures). Using higher-order functions in place of loops is much like using structured programming instead of goto. A for loop is just a specialized form of goto that makes what its doing more explicit, lowers spaghetti code and makes making mistakes harder. A fold or a map is just a specialized form of a for loop that makes what its doing more explicit, lowers spaghetti code and makes making mistakes harder. Everybody decrying the article would probably never dream of using gotos for control flow--structured programming is patently superior! And yet you are also reluctant to use higher-order functions. I think this is a perfect realization of PG's ideas in his Blub essay.