Zero and nil values are almost always bogus. The Go language itself doesn't even respect that proverb: the zero value of a map is not a useful map. There are s

Zero and nil values are almost always bogus. The Go language itself doesn't even respect that proverb: the zero value of a map is not a useful map. There are some rare cases where a 0 value is actually meaningful in some way. But even for types where it is fully functional like integers, it's often not meaningful in the specific context it is used.