The Rigidity of Rules

The primary use of setting and following “rules” is that they give us comfort that we’re acting “correctly”. The problem with them is that, like all synthetic creations, they aren’t very good at correctly controlling the multitude of weaving, fractal pathways of nature. And we as humans are most certainly part of nature. So, if rules make us comfortable, but they’re also ineffective at what they do, we end up being comfortable with being ineffective.

My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

This isn’t to say that we mustn’t set ideals to live and work by. There are plenty of abstract concepts that, through adherance, tend to make things better. For instance: honesty. It’s generally good to be honest. Honest people live in the real world. But if a coworker asks about their code, and their code stinks, it’s best to tiptoe around some of the more colorful language that could be used. Don’t lie and tell them that it’s fantastic. Give some areas for improvement and set them on the right path.

I just created a rule, didn’t I? Well, if the above is true most of the time, it’s probably also true that some coworkers need a good talking to about how consistently awful their output is. We shouldn’t get too comfortable rolling around in the mud.

How is it that we’ve arrived at a place where synthetic creations that we set to guide our actions both give us comfort and make us ineffective? Why does being toward the center of the bell curve make us happy?

In my estimation, we just don’t want to be last. We don’t want to be the guy eating the aforementioned mud. In addition, we don’t want to be the best as the tallest grass gets cut first¹. To the layperson, both ends of the spectrum look the same.

If most people are in the middle, most people wouldn’t be able to tell who’s above average. If you’re toward the high end of the curve, and you generally don’t follow the rules, the majority of your peers will believe that you’re a screw-up. At least that’s what the Dunning-Kruger effect² describes.

So, how are we supposed to act? We humans are particularly adept at building models reflecting our surroundings to properly predict the outcome of our actions. Perhaps we should spend more time utilizing our indescribably complex brain rather than offload that functionality to a list of poorly-defined and poorly understood rules.