[Helianthus]

You know, I completely agree with you in spirit because a lot of the advice was pretty good.

But I rebel at the echo I hear of "You have to learn the rules before you can break them." If you're only doing something so that you can defy it at the proper time, you are still obeying the rules so precisely as to defeat the purpose.

The whole point is that _we make the rules_, as a species, a company; as individuals. If a rule doesn't make sense to us, then fuck it. If we create a rule to fix a situation (fail early/often), and it starts failing, then fuck that rule, too.

There's nothing sacred about the system or our understanding of it. Figure out what rules you like, and discard what you don't like even knowing you might come around to it later.

Of course, I've just said what you said (in a sense) with far more words. But I never want to be held to respecting a dysfunctional system just because it currently exists; I want to have to respect an invalid rule because I understand the reasons it is still _valid_--but desire and _will_ move away from it at earliest opportunity.