Early in my career, blanket statements such as, "don't micro-optimize" led to a lot of confusion. Everything is circumstantial; thus, the reason people say, "best practice" rather than "do this".

"Best practice" is the top choice considering all circumstances. For example, LINQ and Entity Framework should be used in lieu of inline SQL. At my company we are on SQL 2000. SQL 2000 does not support Entity Framework. Best practices require:

• Selling my boss on the idea of buying a new version of SQL which means several thousand bucks.
• Selling developers on the idea of learning new technology.

I know from experience this is not going to happen. So, I could quit, stress to no end or not follow the best practice.

There are political, technical and monetary considerations behind decisions that affect the overall outcome. Remember this fact when making a decision and choose your battles wisely.

"For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven"

Early in my career, blanket statements such as, "don't micro-optimize" led to a lot of confusion. Everything is circumstantial; thus, the reason people say, "best practice" rather than "do this".

"Best practice" is the top choice considering all circumstances. For example, LINQ and Entity Framework should be used in lieu of inline SQL. At my company we are on SQL Server 2000. SQL Server 2000 does not support Entity Framework. Best practices require:

• Selling my boss on the idea of buying a new version of SQL Server which means several thousand bucks.
• Selling developers on the idea of learning new technology.

I know from experience this is not going to happen. So, I could quit, stress to no end or not follow the best practice.

There are political, technical and monetary considerations behind decisions that affect the overall outcome. Remember this fact when making a decision and choose your battles wisely.

"For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under the heaven."