A crutch
You can do this. It works. It's a good thing to know about (also a useful thing to keep in mind when ls or rm commands fail to performa as expected). But it's a crutch.
Better: use, and learn the use of, an effective version control system, and backups.
The problem with crutches are that you come to depend on them. At some point, you'll find yourself in one of two situations: there is no crutch (you're elsewhere, without it), or it's been kicked out from under you (someone's removed the '-i' file), and you'll make a mistake. Better learn to live without it.
