Breaking a rule just because someone can't adequately explain it sounds reckless to me. That's just an excess of ego. You can't blithely assume that because of that there can be no adequate explanation. Or that your thinking process could not have gone astray.
It's not that.
I dunno about others, but if I've decided a rule is bloody stupid, I *must* be 100% sure of it, by not only understanding said rule, but also examining it in practice, watching others obey it, and considering the structure of the related system.
The ego of the ones in charge is only considered after that.
And really, moronic rules are far more common than you might think... PARTICULARLY in the workplace. As a great many retail workers could tell you, not only are plenty of rules bad, but they directly get in the way not only of efficiency, but of SAFETY. And one common aspect of those making the rules isnt that they're logical or illogical: It's that they have this need to feel that they're in control, this need to match up to their job title. They create silly rules in order to feel that they've done their job. Which is so illogical that it's sort of an anti-logic, but they do it anyway. It's VERY frequent in the workplace. The OTHER common aspect is that they have zero thought for those under them... they think of profit, and ONLY of profit. Profit for themselves, that is. That leads to stupid.
And often, businesses might find themselves struggling not because of people disobeying the rules, but instead it's happening MERELY BECAUSE THE RULES EXIST. And eventually, the particularly braindead/idiotic rules start doing so much damage that things start to fall apart, and workers leave. Now, some companies get around that aspect by ALSO doing really shady things in the background, but for those that dont do that... they tend to collapse over time, or have their reputation utterly broken.
My favorite example is the gaming industry. The AAA side of gaming is NOTORIOUS for work practices that are not only bloody stupid, but that actively hurt both the project and the employees AND the reputation of the company AND can lead to giant lawsuits.
For instance, there's typically rules in place that say that programmers/designers/whatever MUST work EXTREMELY long hours. Often, this is compounded by "unspoken" (yet absolutely enforced) rules that they must ALSO work extreme overtime, often for no pay.
Why is this done? Both powermongering, and utter obsession with profit, while also NOT understanding how development works in the slightest.
Does this lead to a better product? Ye gods, no. It leads to A: a VERY broken mess of a game release, B: employees who are so ridiculously overworked that they have literal mental breakdowns, C: employees that say "screw it" and leave to go do stuff in the indie side of the industry, and D: an absolute tanking of the company's reputation. Every now and then, it also leads to E: high-level lawmakers getting involved. There are multiple companies that are absolutely *loathed* by gamers as a whole. That shouldnt happen. Unfortunately, those same companies counter all that damage by doing very shady and outright dangerous things. Yet at the same time, well... sooner or later they will hit a breaking point. And then the "fun" begins.
Any time I meet an aspiring developer, I always give the exact same advice: DO NOT go work on this side of the industry. It wont profit you like you think it will, but it WILL utterly wreck you and destroy your life. Yes, it's THAT bad. And it's not rare. Almost every company does this.
That sort of nonsense is what I'm speaking of. With many companies, it happens at a much lower intensity, but the nature of the problems are still the same. And with some... it's even worse.
In my case, whenever I encountered something like that... I'd refuse. Absolutely refuse. I'm not going to wreck myself because of your need for profit, or for your need to feel better than everyone else. And if someone tried to push me into it anyway, well... I discovered that the right words, to the right people, tends to cancel them out. Or completely annihilate them. There is always a bigger dog, and those big dogs can be urged into certain actions. There was one manager in particular, at a movie theater I worked at, right. She tried some stuff with me. I gave her a warning. She laughed at me. I then came up with a course of action.
She lasted exactly three more days. And then she was out entirely. Not demoted, just OUT. The others tended to just avoid me after that. Gee, I wonder why...
It is possible to fight back against idiocy like this. The process is often difficult as heck to figure out, but... it can be done. I learned this lesson out of sheer necessity back in high school. It has served me well in the many years since. I dont cheat or do underhanded things to accomplish it, either. No need.
Sorry, rambling a bit. This is one of those issues where I've had to deal with it a few too many times, so when the subject is brought up, it usually leads to a rant.
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