[tabony]

Have been doing all my life and it has never backfired.

It’s not about breaking rules. It’s that I already know what you want.

If I buy you ice cream without asking you for the flavor, it’s because I already know what you want because I pay attention to you.

And it doesn’t matter when I get it wrong because you appreciated the 500 other times I cared about you.

[pmg101]

And decision fatigue is a real thing. Even if the ice cream flavour/engineering decision is maybe not perfectly optimal, there's some value in not having to make the decision myself

[kortilla]

Again, you’re just doing it for things that aren’t real rules.

Try:

- Intentionally violating a safety protocol in a hardware lab

- taking company property for yourself

- stealing from a vendor

- sexually harassing your direct reports

What this thread seems to be talking about is violating soft process norms.

[contrast]

For sure - actions before words and all that.

I think the context is different if you’ve shown you care twice a day for a year before screwing up. Most people interpret messages in light of their experience of you.

If you don’t have that track record, the words probably have a different flavor.