Against Best Practices

Best practices are a way to avoid building everything up from first principles every time. They are more, “here are rules that are generally applicable so you don’t have to waste time thinking,” vs “here are laws of god which are always applicable.”

It is an error to throw out every best practice and reconsider everything just as it is to blindly follow the best practices.

IMO it’s best to apply the best practices by default and question them as they are used. Essentially trust but verify. Assuming they are right most of the time you get the benefit of speed. Assuming some of them are wrong, it still leaves room to course correct.

Maybe "good practice" is a better term.

I've seen (and started using) "current common practices" instead of "best practices" where it makes sense.

In an always-evolving technology landscape, it feels like a better representation of what we're doing, and it helps prevent the kind of dogmatic stubbornness that forms around the word "best".