How important is it to follow the rules? Probably pretty important if you're a surgeon, less so if you're assembling a stereo system.
Rules are guidelines that help us navigate uncharted waters. We follow them until we know the way and then it's time to rethink our actions.
Sometimes we get trapped in our penchant to follow the rules—like when we do what's always worked in the past: use a certain type of cable, set the level where it's always worked, paid more attention to this or that because the rules suggest that's the way you do it.
I prefer to think of rules more like recipes. A recipe is a guidebook to get you started. Once the process has been mastered, it's time to add your own twist.
We don't break the rules just for the sake of being rebels. Sometimes the rules are there for a good reason.
If we want to move past the everyday humdrum we'll have to consider a bit of rule breaking.
The old chestnut "rules are meant to be broken" exists because we're interested in better.
Give yourself permission to break a few rules now and then.
