There's a natural workflow that tends to get ignored in these discussions: when you're not sure of all the details of the pipeline yet and your file is big enough to slow you down.
I typically start with (say) `head file | grep '2020'`. Once it does what I want I move to the next step, and so on until it's done. At that point, and having chained 5-6 commands, replacing `head` with `cat` is faster and less likely to break due to me putting the '<' in the wrong place. The simplicity and extra peace of mind is well worth an extra process IMHO.
I typically start with (say) `head file | grep '2020'`. Once it does what I want I move to the next step, and so on until it's done. At that point, and having chained 5-6 commands, replacing `head` with `cat` is faster and less likely to break due to me putting the '<' in the wrong place. The simplicity and extra peace of mind is well worth an extra process IMHO.