“RE: Optimize Your UserTalk: Remove Extra Variables”

I'd posit that the "Avoid Single-Use Variables" rule should depend on your goal. If you're coding for maximum efficiency, then this makes sense. However, in many cases, assigning a return value to a meaningfully named variable can make the code that much easier to read, and therefore, to maintain later. It comes down to machine-time versus people-time in some cases -- which is more important for the application at hand?