When to trust yourself instead of best practices.

Issue #278 of the Better Humans Newsletter. Subscribe here for inspiration and knowledge. [Tony Stubblebine](coachtony?source=email-c7f27b30bfea-1665007242453-newsletter.subscribeToProfile-7038e003d060------------------------5ce0b721_d8c7_4f9a_bfc5_7439c10ba48e--------de6e5ad096a9)[Tony Stubblebine](coachtony?source=email-c7f27b30bfea-1665007242453-newsletter.subscribeToProfile-7038e003d060------------------------5ce0b721_d8c7_4f9a_bfc5_7439c10ba48e--------de6e5ad096a9) in [Better Humans](   ∙  3 min read   ∙  [View on Medium]( When to trust yourself instead of best practices. Issue #278 of the Better Humans Newsletter. [Subscribe here]( for inspiration and knowledge. ··· I hope this is a newsletter that will make [Mike Sturm]( happy because I often think about and reference his article on [falsification mindsets](. Mike articulates the idea that since changing your mind is hard and rare, you should develop a systematic way to do that. That system, a falsification mindset, is to prepare yourself by articulating what sort of information would cause you to re-evaluate your opinion. This falsification idea is intertwined for me with best practices and expert advice. That’s because for me, and for many people, I’ve decided that I should follow the advice of experts and follow well known best practices. So applying a falsification mindset to that decision, I should think through what information would cause me to change my mind. Essentially: when should I ignore the experts? The issue is that I don’t want to turn myself, let alone you, into flat-earthers or anti-vaxxers. That’s a tightrope. On the one hand, being able to change your mind is a virtue. But on the other, always being contrarian also means often being very, very wrong. ··· My personal worst case for following best practices is why I didn’t make any money from Twitter. I was working at the company that launched Twitter and I was in good standing. But I was also very, very frustrated with the job and so I quit. That’s sensible enough. Twitter wasn’t guaranteed to be what it is now and I had other opportunities. But, after quitting I was asked back. Ev Williams, who was my boss then and is my boss again now, asked me to reconsider. He explained what was changing, that the things that were making me unhappy were going away, etc. Unfortunately for me, I’d read that it was a best practice to always reject a counter offer. So I stuck with my decision to leave and missed out on life changing money and probably a very interesting adventure. The logic behind the “never take a counter offer” best practice is that you are signaling to your boss that you aren’t committed to staying and then giving them time to find your replacement. I don’t know for sure, but I am nearly certain that the counter offer from Ev was genuine. If you think deeply about this particular best practice there are at least two places where it breaks down: either you aren’t replaceable or your position isn’t worth replacing. My role was in the “not worth replacing” category. He was laying off most of the staff at that company to focus a small team on Twitter. That team didn’t specifically need my type of engineering management in the moment. Therefore, the only reason to counter offer was if there was some long term reason to have me stick around. ··· These sorts of situations come up all the time with medical situations. Your doctor obviously knows a lot more than you. But it’s also fairly common that if you take the time to do research, that you can find some information that is specifically helpful and relevant to you. That’s why we have the phrase, “Get a second opinion.” We had this in my family once. The first doctor recommended a surgery that required an overnight stay and a week long recover. The second doctor recommended a different, newer surgery that was outpatient and had very little recovery. It made me wonder why the first doctor was even still in business? Did they not know about the newer technique? That is the most obvious case of rejecting an expert (the first doctor) that I’ve ever experienced. ··· What I’m getting at here is the falsification mindset version of “more work than you want, less than you fear.” My fear is that to reject a doctor’s advice, I’d first have to become a doctor myself. That’s way too much work. My want is that I can just rely on a doctor’s advice and not have to second guess them. But the reality is in between. To get a second medical opinion requires a couple hours of work. That’s more than I want, but still well within the range of what I think is worthwhile. ··· None of this means you should never trust best practices or experts. I try to use them as a starting point. But when the stakes are high or I have a bad feeling in my gut, I slow down and try to dig into the first principles. Sometimes good advice doesn’t apply to your actual situation. [Reply to this story](mailto:tony+newsletter@tonystubblebine.com?subject=Re%3A%20When%20to%20trust%20yourself%20instead%20of%20best%20practices.)[View story]( Sent to {EMAIL} by Tony Stubblebine on Medium [Unsubscribe]( from this writer’s Medium emails [Unsubscribe from all]( newsletters sent using Medium Medium, 548 Market St, PMB 42061, San Francisco, CA 94104[Careers]( Center]( Policy]( of service](