[lelandfe]

Similarly, I was tasked with counting every file in a folder and its subdirectories as a punishment at a job on campus as an undergrad.

I plonked out a Bash oneliner in a couple minutes and gave the result. My disgruntled superior had me do it again by hand.

[thekiptxt]

Ah, you had the knowledge to solve the problem using bash, but had not the wisdom to sit on the answer and surf the web until a plausible amount of time had passed :)