Best Practices
186 words.
Rescued from my Drafts folder…
I have to struggle not to roll my eyes whenever I read or hear the words “best practice” used in a sentence. It should be completely obvious why this phrase is annoying to a veteran programmer, but in case it isn’t:
“Best practice” implies that there is no reason to bother looking for a better solution, because the best one has already been found (usually by the marketing department). Any experienced (and truthful) developer will tell you that there is always room for improvement in any software implementation. There is always a faster a way, a smaller way, a more resource-efficient way, a more elegant way, etc. Better terms would be “best practice so far” or “best practice for now.”
“Best practice” also implies that it’s the best solution for every conceivable situation. Unfortunately, in the real world, every situation is different, and the “best practice” might end up being bigger, slower, and more expensive than some other smaller, faster and cheaper “not best” practice. So the phrase needs to be further modified to “best practice for now, in some cases.”
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