I very much dislike the term. My objection to it has always been, "How extensive was your evaluation of practices that led you to call this one best?" Because usually the answer is, "Not very". At best it was, "Because <legitRecognizedAuthorityOnTheSubject> said so." But often it's, "Because I think so," a purely narcissistic response. It usually has the empty validity of, "Many people say..." Who? What people?
So I much prefer to say "recommended practices," with some backup to the recommendations. If it's just me, I'll say, "My preferred practice."
I was chatting with one of my kids this morning about the word "should". And since he's done some coding, I was able to use the analogy that sometimes "should" is a handy abbreviation, but often it can be an obscuring abstraction. In code, when an abstraction seems to be hiding information in an unhelpful way, I can try to inline it. In collaboration, I've also increasingly tried to "inline" terms like "should" or "best practice". "When you say that, what do you mean?"
I like that analogy! For a long time I've seen the use of the word 'should' as an indicator for woolly thinking, uncertainty and, in the worst cases, ignorance.
It's a hard habit to break and I catch myself using it all the time but at least I'm aware of it these days and can correct myself when it happens!
* You have a sponsor! Forgot you were trying to do that. Good for you. And while I look favorably at most of the pairing tech companies, who seem to be consistenly started by devs just trying to get the tool "right", I'll look even more positively on Tuple going forward as a result of them stepping up.
* You used your delightful hand drawn diagrams to communicate their message and perhaps even came up with the concept for the diagram yourself! Huh! It was effective and sure made the experience seem less like a commercial.
* You used italics for emphasis on a single letter word, namely the "A" in "A best practice"! Not sure I'd seen that done before and I missed it the first time through. In fact, the only reason I "did" catch it was because I was going to comment on how that sentence didn't make any sense to me.
* I wonder if anyone has compiled a list of "best practices" for commenting on posts?
I've been allergic to the phrase for decades. You know when some guy walks in and says "I'm a consultant, and I'm here to deliver Best Practices" (and it's definitely capitalised). This translates very quickly to "Don't bother expecting me to explain the thing I'm supposed to be an expert in. That would be a waste of my very expensive time."
Furthermore, while there are plenty of Good Practices (hey - I can capitalise too!) the likelihood of any of them being generally applicable is small. So we choose from the good practices we know of, or maybe try to invent a new one.
During the last year and a half I've been studying a bit of philosophy and I'm really enjoying it. It always baffles me when I connect things we do today (I use Cynefin in quite frequently) to things someone said some centuries ago, like this quote from David Hume (1748):
"Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact; it must be acknowledged, that this guide is not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us into errors."
I like your ad! And I clicked on the link and looked them up. I will try to use them and will encourage engineers to use for this pairing! (I used ScreenHero many years ago and have not kept up with pairing tools since). Your stamp of approval on the pairing tool means a lot!
Regarding “best practices”, they are often formulated a “do this” and as others have said, they become a form of “argument from authority” fallacy. If instead best practices are formulated as “when in this context, consider doing this, because it is likely to help that way” it is a lot easier to know when to apply them or why they work or don’t work.
I very much dislike the term. My objection to it has always been, "How extensive was your evaluation of practices that led you to call this one best?" Because usually the answer is, "Not very". At best it was, "Because <legitRecognizedAuthorityOnTheSubject> said so." But often it's, "Because I think so," a purely narcissistic response. It usually has the empty validity of, "Many people say..." Who? What people?
So I much prefer to say "recommended practices," with some backup to the recommendations. If it's just me, I'll say, "My preferred practice."
I was chatting with one of my kids this morning about the word "should". And since he's done some coding, I was able to use the analogy that sometimes "should" is a handy abbreviation, but often it can be an obscuring abstraction. In code, when an abstraction seems to be hiding information in an unhelpful way, I can try to inline it. In collaboration, I've also increasingly tried to "inline" terms like "should" or "best practice". "When you say that, what do you mean?"
I like that analogy! For a long time I've seen the use of the word 'should' as an indicator for woolly thinking, uncertainty and, in the worst cases, ignorance.
It's a hard habit to break and I catch myself using it all the time but at least I'm aware of it these days and can correct myself when it happens!
Here's what I reacted to today:
* You have a sponsor! Forgot you were trying to do that. Good for you. And while I look favorably at most of the pairing tech companies, who seem to be consistenly started by devs just trying to get the tool "right", I'll look even more positively on Tuple going forward as a result of them stepping up.
* You used your delightful hand drawn diagrams to communicate their message and perhaps even came up with the concept for the diagram yourself! Huh! It was effective and sure made the experience seem less like a commercial.
* You used italics for emphasis on a single letter word, namely the "A" in "A best practice"! Not sure I'd seen that done before and I missed it the first time through. In fact, the only reason I "did" catch it was because I was going to comment on how that sentence didn't make any sense to me.
* I wonder if anyone has compiled a list of "best practices" for commenting on posts?
That was @Tuple's illustration, but playing off my graphic style.
I've been allergic to the phrase for decades. You know when some guy walks in and says "I'm a consultant, and I'm here to deliver Best Practices" (and it's definitely capitalised). This translates very quickly to "Don't bother expecting me to explain the thing I'm supposed to be an expert in. That would be a waste of my very expensive time."
Furthermore, while there are plenty of Good Practices (hey - I can capitalise too!) the likelihood of any of them being generally applicable is small. So we choose from the good practices we know of, or maybe try to invent a new one.
During the last year and a half I've been studying a bit of philosophy and I'm really enjoying it. It always baffles me when I connect things we do today (I use Cynefin in quite frequently) to things someone said some centuries ago, like this quote from David Hume (1748):
"Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact; it must be acknowledged, that this guide is not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us into errors."
I like your ad! And I clicked on the link and looked them up. I will try to use them and will encourage engineers to use for this pairing! (I used ScreenHero many years ago and have not kept up with pairing tools since). Your stamp of approval on the pairing tool means a lot!
Regarding “best practices”, they are often formulated a “do this” and as others have said, they become a form of “argument from authority” fallacy. If instead best practices are formulated as “when in this context, consider doing this, because it is likely to help that way” it is a lot easier to know when to apply them or why they work or don’t work.
Sounds like Thinkies!