Best practice, an abused phrase

I’m sure we’ve all heard something along the lines of:

• “We need more unit tests, it’s best practice.”
• “Our CI pipeline is too slow, we need to make it faster, it’s best practice.”
• “This code is duplicated. We need to make it DRY. It’s best practice.”
• “We need to write documentation, it’s best practice”
• “Make this code change, it’s best practice”

These are all great things, but the reasoning is lazy.

“Best practice” is an abused phrase in software development. It removes all context from a problem and makes one feel guilty for not following rigid rules. It stifles innovation, as the new idea being explored is foreign and goes against conventional wisdom. Don’t regurgitate. Think critically.

What frontend technologies have gone against “best practice”?

React and Tailwind.

Can we find success outside of best practices?