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Postings from March 2011
In article <op.vrv2xhag1fclwf@xenpad>, Christian Walde <mithaldu@yahoo.de> wrote: > On Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:28:51 +0100, brian d foy <brian.d.foy@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I think you miss the point of best practice. Outside of a started > > context, you can't say what is best, good, not optimal, or anything > > else. There is no way to compare anything when you don't know what the > > task is, and pretending everyone else in the world has the same goals, > > constraints, or resources as you is dishonest. > > This makes me wonder about just what a "best practice" is. So far i took it > to mean "behavior that is better than other related behaviors in more > situations". But you seem to say it means "behavior that is better than all > other related behaviors in all situations". Nope, I'm not implying either of those. I'm saying that you can't say "best practice" unless you specify the context. It's not a game of which situations dominate. You should think very carefully about what a best practice actually is before trying to recommend it to anyone else in any context. Basically, the practicality of "best practice" is that people use it as a way to not think and to appeal to authority to win an argument. The actual best practice is to figure out the benefits and costs and consequences over any decision, rank those based on what's important in the particular situation, and then make a judgement call. Instead, "best practice" has turned into "do what I say without questioning it". A real discussion of practices includes both sides-what you get and what you give up. However, once given an answer, people stop thinking. Peter used the word "informed" to describe the people who are telling people to do it their way without knowing what the rest of the world is trying to accomplish. That's an anti-best practice.Thread Previous | Thread Next