By the way there's another trick I sometimes use when I really really want to delete a directory but I also really really don't want to make a mistake:

  cd ~/somewhere
  mv the_thing_i_want_to_delete ~/tmp/go_away
  cd ~/tmp
  rm -rf go_away

I'll also use Tab to command-complete the "go_away", and pause slightly before pressing Enter.

Sometimes I'll even just let it sit there in ~/tmp for a few months before clobbering it.