> Most best practices that I have been told about were low local maxima at best, and very harmful at worst.
This matches my experience, though sometimes they indeed will be helpful, at least after some consideration.
> If someone quotes a best practice to you and can't cite a convincing "why", you should immediately reject it.
In certain environments this will get you labeled someone who doesn't want to create quality software, because obviously best practices will lead to good code and not wanting to follow those practices or questioning them means that you don't have enough experience or something. Ergo, you should just apply SOLID and DRY everywhere, even if it becomes more or less a cargo cult. Not that I agree with the idea, but that way of thinking is prevalent.
(not that I agree with that, people just have that mindset sometimes)
This matches my experience, though sometimes they indeed will be helpful, at least after some consideration.
> If someone quotes a best practice to you and can't cite a convincing "why", you should immediately reject it.
In certain environments this will get you labeled someone who doesn't want to create quality software, because obviously best practices will lead to good code and not wanting to follow those practices or questioning them means that you don't have enough experience or something. Ergo, you should just apply SOLID and DRY everywhere, even if it becomes more or less a cargo cult. Not that I agree with the idea, but that way of thinking is prevalent.
(not that I agree with that, people just have that mindset sometimes)