I’d seen a number of blogs of late using the phrase “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should”. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the bottom of where that phrase originated or what it really means. Perhaps it is intended as a cautionary piece of advice – plan carefully, do things wisely, avoid future headaches. At worse it is making a mockery of someone else’s work.
But for me, I’m concerned the phrase can become a dampener on people’s inclination for creativity. To be creative is to break not bend the rules. If we always followed rules, best practice, and what our peers advise, then fewer new and exciting things will be learned or created. Yes, novelty may be clunky, inefficient and ineffective, but if successful, refinement follows.
Below comic created in Power BI illustrates this. I used chart.xkcd from Daniel Marsh-Patrick. The data is fictitious 🙂