[mikeschinkel]

Agree with your assumption, but then I also know that developers often read recommendations and convert them into dogma, ignoring the specifics for when those recommendations should be applied.

Early in my career I taught programmers and I was horrified to come back to one client and find they followed my advice, but not where it applied meaning that what they did was actively harmful.

Ever since that, I realized when a developer makes a recommendation they need to be very explicit about when it applies otherwise they are doing more harm than good and hopefully someone will publicly challenge their recommendation to bring their unstated qualifications to light.