Against Best Practices

The advantage of best practices is that you have something you can follow without having to analyze the situation in depth. The disadvantage of best practices is that you may have to analyze the situation in depth to notice that they maybe aren’t the best choice in the specific situation. The harm that best practices can do are lessened by viewing them as a rule of thumb conditioned on certain premises rather than as a dogma.

I like to use the term "golden path" instead of best practices.

In a golden path, lots of others have gone before you and figured out all the nuance. But this doesn't mean the path is the best one for you, but does mean you should have a good reason for starying from it