[lmm]

> It might still be a good idea, but you shouldn't seriously consider it until you hear an actually convincing reason (not a "just so" explanation that skips several steps).

If everyone follows that then every decision will be bikeshedded to death. I think part of the point of the concept of "best practices" is that some ideas should be at least somewhat entrenched, followed by default, and not overturned without good reason.

Ideally your records of best practices would include a rationale and scope for when they should be reexamined. But trying to reason everything out from first principles doesn't work great either.

[trelane]

It strikes me that, if a decision can be bikeshedded to death, it's not, generally speaking, an important decision.

[lmm]

Well calling something a bikeshed is implicitly claiming that it's not so important. Often the specific choice is not very important, but making a choice rather than not making one is important. And while an effective organisation would not allow important decisionmaking to get derailed, many organisations are ineffective.