Best practices are not about maximizing greatness, they are about minimizing failure, for the largest number of people, across the widest range of situations.

• They are a form of institutionalized safetyism, disguised as excellence.
• They are mediocrity, sold as wisdom.
• They optimize for not being blamed, not for being outstanding.
• They are mimetically best, not ontologically best.
• They are fit for the average, not for the exceptional.
• They succeed through survivability, not through superiority.
• They are good for creating minimum viable competence, not maximum creative mastery.
• They represent past optimizations, not future innovations.
• They favor conformity over insight.
• They reward obedience over creativity.
• They compress complexity into simple heuristics, sacrificing adaptability.
• They encourage risk aversion, not risk taking.