We agree on the maxim while disagreeing with how to apply it. For me, "returning" is simpler because it seems to involve fewer moving parts: you don't have to remember to write 'squid' at the end and you get a local variable that is scoped only to the block where it is needed.

To you, it is a gross and needlessly complicated way to write begin; squid = ...; squid; end. I can see how you would feel that way without feeling that way myself.

I'm curious about the aversion to Symbol#to_proc. If you see [...].map(&:name) and think of it as an abbreviation for { |element| element.name }, there isn't much to like.

But coming from Smalltalk, does your brain ever click over and make you think of [...].map(&:name) as meaning "map the message :name over this array"?

I ask because when I think of languages like Smalltalk and Ruby, I go along with Alan kay and thenk of them as being message-oriented rather than object-oriented. Symbol#to_proc seems to fit that somehow in my brain. I dunno how to explain it any other way, it really feels less like an abbreviation to save some characters and more like getting closer to what I am trying to say...