[ctenb]

I think the older programmer was hinting at gauss's formula with the summing 1 to 10 without using a loop? Recursion is also a loop in some sense.

[rramadass]

Yep; the submitted article is just pedestrian with lots of posturing and pretty language to sell it. There is nothing of Programming/Mathematics/Erlang in it to deserve the upvotes.

Some of the comments here are far more informative.