What steps can be taken to recover from rm -rf ~ Asking for a friend.

Imagine that one has accidentally created a file named ~ and in the process of deleting it, foolishly types:

rm -rf ~


Luckily, I have active terminal windows open, so all is not entirely lost. I happened to have stopped this while it was deleting in the ~/. prefixed directories, too, so I somehow have all my work related content still as those directories didn't get hit with the rm (lucky, I know). 

Is there any way to recover from this? What files do I need to recreate while I still have valid terminal sessions?

I'm under the assumption that all my configuration (mostly in ~/. named folders/directories) is permanently gone. I've recovered some of my .bash_profile by looking at env, alias, and typeset -f but I'm sure I'm missing parts of it.
rm is one of those dangerous commands where to "Err is human, but to really foul things up, you need a computer."  rm immediately deletes the files and bypasses the Trash...you don't pass "Go" and you don't "collect $200."

Your best bet is to.... 


Stop using the machine as in ASAP.  The more your use it, the more disk activity, the less of a chance of recovery.
Look at getting something like DiskDrill.  It's free to use but the actual recovery will cost around $100.  There are others, but I found this one works really well for me.
Start a Time Machine regimen and adhere to it.