Yes the "fake pointer" pattern is a key survival strategy. Another one I use often is the command pattern. You borrow a struct to grab some piece of data, based

Yes the "fake pointer" pattern is a key survival strategy. Another one I use often is the command pattern. You borrow a struct to grab some piece of data, based on it you want to modify some other piece of the struct, but you can't because you have that first immutable borrow still. So you return a command object that expresses the mutation you want, back up the call stack until you're free to acquire a mutable reference and execute the mutation as the command instructs. Very verbose to use frequently, but often good for overall structure for key elements.