C2: Best Practice Alignment
Custom patterns require custom training data AI doesn't have. Bespoke solutions lack community support, documentation, and AI familiarity. AI models are trained on public codebases following standard patterns. Industry standards have extensive documentation, tooling, and training data. Adoption cost is lower than invention cost.
Principle
- All teams MUST establish culture centered on industry best practices.
Proactively adopt best practices when starting new projects and choosing technical approaches. Standard approaches get better AI assistance. AI models are trained on public codebases following standard patterns. Industry standards have extensive documentation, tooling, and training data. Adoption cost is lower than invention cost.
- Teams MUST NOT reinvent industry standards.
When a standard exists, the default should be adoption, not reinvention. "We do REST differently here" creates friction for new hires, AI agents, and integrations. Extending standards is acceptable when documented. Inventing when no standard exists is necessary but rare.