As frou_dh points out below, Go does not force all errors to be handled (edit: to be clear, they don't even have to handle it with _ ). See this working example

As frou_dh points out below, Go does not force all errors to be handled (edit: to be clear, they don't even have to handle it with _ ). See this working example in the playground for reference: http://play.golang.org/p/IPDTG6Ub2b http://play.golang.org/p/IPDTG6Ub2b Edit: The comment that you replied to said "Go does not force you to handle errors." Your comment said "True but it's not idiomatic." My reply was meant to show that it's very easy to ignore errors in code that is not obviously un-idiomatic. Also, note that in your grandparent comment, you stated, "The PRIMARY reason Go is so reliable is also a reason many people hate go: you _have_ to handle every error." In my link, however, the error goes unhandled.