Best practices are rarely the best — they're mostly just cargo cult common practices.
And as more people adopt them, the more mediocre they become.
The best is usually what most people aren't willing to do.
updated 4mo ago
Best practices are rarely the best — they're mostly just cargo cult common practices. And as more people adopt them, the more mediocre they become. The best is usually what most people aren't willing to do.
In performance cultures, people often become attached to best practices. The risk is that once we’ve declared a routine the best, it becomes frozen in time. We preach about its virtues and stop questioning its vices, no longer curious about where it’s imperfect and where it could improve.
from Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant
- Julia Evans once said "behind every best practice is a horror story." If you don't understand a Best Practice, look for the horror story that inspired it. It might make the best practice make sense. It might turn out to be something that's completely irrelevant to you, and then you can feel comfortable doing a different practice instead.
from Advice for new software devs who've read all those other advice essays by Dec. 19
nico kokonas and added
- “If you never copy best practices, you’ll have to repeat all the mistakes yourself.
If you only copy best practices, you’ll always be one step behind the leaders.”from 3-2-1: On copying best practices, being underestimated, and the difficulty of change by James Clear
Isaac Feldman and added