# Proposed benefits:
# * more verbose, but you can see more clearly all the "stuff" your method is using
# * easier to re-use methods, since they're not coupled to instance var names
# * less room for concurrency issues, since all state transforms would be in the top methods

class User
  def gender
    infer_gender
    @gender
  end

  private
  def infer_gender
    @gender ||= if male_name?
      'male'
    elsif female_name?
      'female'
    else
      'unknown'
    end
  end

  def male_name?
    @name == 'bob'
  end

  def female_name?
    @name == 'jane'
  end
end

vs

class User
  def gender
    @gender ||= infer_gender(@name)
  end

  private
  def infer_gender(name)
    if male_name?(name)
      'male'
    elsif female_name?(name)
      'female'
    else
      'unknown'
    end
  end

  def male_name?(name)
    name == 'bob'
  end

  def female_name?(name)
    name == 'jane'
  end
end