People are often advised to “follow best practices”, and it’s not bad advice. Carefully following in the steps of those that have gone before us is a safe way to proceed. At the same time, best practices are designed to be limiting.
In his book “Clear Thinking“, author Shane Parrish warns that best practices are always average:
Doing something different means you might underperform, but it also means you might change the game entirely. If you do what everyone else does, you’ll get the same results that everyone else gets. Best practices aren’t always the best. By definition, they’re average.
It reminds me of the classic saying “Nobody gets fired for buying IBM“. It’s a safe bet; it’s unlikely to have huge rewards, but it’s also unlikely to turn out horrible. It’s average.
In a lot of cases, the “average best practice” is ideal. If you want to take a gamble on going far, though, avoiding best practices can sometimes be the best thing you can do.
