What is an idiom for better than "textbook case", "by the book" or "best practices"

Question

Something indicating above and beyond the standard best practices, superior to by-the-book-experience.

For instance, I would like to use it in a blog title The non-textbook / non-standard / beyond best practices / virality of XYZ, to indicate that XYZ is doing a better job and not following standard textbook techniques.

The following does not indicate more effective or positive. "The non-standard approach to organic discovery and viral loops in XYZ"

Alternatively, I'd like to say XYZ does not follow the best practices of virality but it doing way better. An idiom, phrase or even a word would work.

You are not using antonym correctly in your title and in your first sentence. Why not just say "what is an idiom for better than ...." in the title and delete the first sentence? — ab2, Jul 17 '16 at 18:06
The three idioms in your title do not mean the same thing. (Nowhere near, in fact.) It is unclear what it is that you want. — Hot Licks, Jul 17 '16 at 21:22
And how is it possible to be "above and beyond" best practices? — Hot Licks, Jul 17 '16 at 21:23
@HotLicks Going "above and beyond best practices" is easy. Choose a method at random from here: https://ig.ft.com/sites/guffipedia/ — alephzero, Jul 17 '16 at 21:41
I'd like to say XYZ does not follow the best practices of virality but it doing way better. It's possible that XYZ does not follow the common formula or adhere to industry standards, but there is no way to do "better" than "best practices", by definition. — Hot Licks, Jul 17 '16 at 21:50
@HotLicks Wouldn't say that. Best practice is something seen as “superior to any alternatives because it produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing things” (to quote the Wikipedia article). There's always room for improvement even on best practices—particularly the ones that are just standard ways of doing things. — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Jul 17 '16 at 23:59
@JanusBahsJacquet - I'm talking English here, and "best practices" as used in, say, engineering, not marketing-speak. — Hot Licks, Jul 18 '16 at 11:15
@HotLicks I can't speak for engineering specifically (which I would definitely not call more English than marketing speak), but within academia, medicine, publishing, insurance, and just run-of-the-mill enterprising, best practices does not refer to some unchangeable, perfect method of doing things that can never in any way be improved upon. It refers, exactly as every dictionary I've looked up the term in so far, to “procedures that are accepted or prescribed as being correct or most effective”. Best practices change all the time as technology advances and ‘best’ is no longer best. — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Jul 18 '16 at 11:31
@JanusBahsJacquet - You're really describing "common practice" or "by the book". — Hot Licks, Jul 18 '16 at 11:36
@HotLicks The way it's used in practice, best practice and by the book are very close to being synonyms, yes, the only difference being that doing something by the book has a bit more wiggle room for laziness. Common practice, on the other hand, means something else entirely to me: it's descriptive, rather than prescriptive. In an ideal world, common practice and best practice would be the same, but in the real world, I've only rarely come across places where they are. — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Jul 18 '16 at 11:47
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score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

4

I'd like to say XYZ does not follow the best practices of virality but it doing way better. An idiom, phrase or even a word would work.

Is anything wrong with saying it's doing it in a unorthodox yet superior way?

Contrary to what is usual, traditional, or accepted

Of high standard or quality

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

1

answered Jul 17 '16 at 21:06

Denis de Bernardy

1,950

score 3 · Answer 2 · 2016-07-17T18:41:24.600

paradigmatic

Merriam-Webster

constituting, serving as, or worthy of being a pattern to be imitated

"XYZ is the paradigmatic technique/practice/case for reproducibly solving this problem."

archetypal/archetypical/archetypic

Merriam-Webster

1: the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies

"XYZ is the archetypal technique/practice/case that sets a model for everyone to use."

quintessential

dictionary.com

of or relating to the most perfect embodiment of something

"XYZ is the quintessential technique/practice/case for solving this problem."

Similar to paradigmatic is *model*. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jul 18 '16 at 00:00 — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Jul 18 '16 at 00:00

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

MW defines avant-garde (from French, “advance guard”) as

an intelligentsia that develops new or experimental concepts especially in the arts

This could plausibly be applied to a person who develops and field-tests new techniques, before they get distilled and codified; or to the techniques themselves.

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

If I were to say that XYZ approach does better than "best practices," I would say it raises the bar, or sets a new standard. If you want to use a single word you could call it novel, like the patent office. The entire concept of state of the art admits that the current state is ephemeral and will advance.

novel - new and different from what has been known before

raise the bar - To raise standards or expectations, especially by creating something to a higher standard.

What is an idiom for better than "textbook case", "by the book" or "best practices"

4 Answers4