title: Zed Shaw's Learn Python the Hard way Tutorial
body: <p>I'm new to programming and currently going through the exercises in Zed Shaw's Python book.
  In Zed's Ex41, there is this function:</p>
  
  <pre><code>def runner(map, start):
       next = start
  
       while True:
           room = map[next]
           print "\n-------"
           next = room()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My question is, why did he have to assign 'start' to the variable 'next' when he could have used 'start' straight away? Why didn't he just do this?</p>
  
  <pre><code>def runner(map, start):
  
  
       while True:
           room = map[start]
           print "\n-------"
           start = room()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Because this function also seem to work. Thanks</p>