Is this really so amazing? I "invented" this long ago when I first implemented a binary tree. First you code the ugly version, and then in your mind or on paper

Is this really so amazing? I "invented" this long ago when I first implemented a binary tree. First you code the ugly version, and then in your mind or on paper you execute it and you see that there's nothing special about the root node, yet it is handled by a special case. Then you remove the special case, that's all. So keep in mind that contrary to what several people here are saying, it does not cause extra pointer dereferences.