Life is testing boundaries and assumptions. If a boundary is not tested, it can never be crossed. If no boundaries are crossed, no progress is made. Much of the good in the world can be traced back to people who didn't stay inside boundaries set out for them by someone else. You can test boundaries or you can stay in the womb - your choice.
Is this a good thing?
Boundaries are there for a reason. Crossing them can be very bad for you, or for others, or both. Remember that the people setting the boundaries are likely to have known what they were doing. Much of the evil in the world can be traced back to people who didn't stay inside boundaries set out for them by someone else. You can live how you're supposed to, or you can die from the evil kept out by boundaries - your choice.
I'm not really sure that this should be a category. Whether it is or not, does not most of the reality fall down to "I should test boundaries but you should not"? --Vitenka
I was hoping someone else would say that first ;) - MoonShadow, cleanup-wary
..you mean for wiki pages? Yes (imposed by the filesystem), but you're unlikely to reach it for pagenames that are actually useful (it's about 250 characters, don't remember exactly how long) as pagenames longer than 30-40 chars will probably get MaintainMe'd / otherwise discouraged 'cos I think they look quite ugly. - MoonShadow
Crossing a boundary takes a step of faith, but that faith needn't (depending on the nature of the boundary) be completely blind. One can analyse consequences. A rule for which you suspect there's no reason, given by someone whose authority you do not respect or where you have reason to believe will not be enforced, might well be crossed to advantage if an individual sees a reason. Other boundaries might be considered not worth crossing - how close can I get to the wasps' nest before they all try to sting me. So neither yes nor no would be universally applicable. - kappa.wwwcache.cam.ac.uk
But equally, some people will push a boundary that is set for a reason, purely because you set it and not them, and they wish to annoy you. Then again, there's also a semi-legitimate drive to discover the exact location of the boundaries. Legitimate because you need to know what you can do. Semi, because it means you are wondering about the boundaries, rather than the reasons for the boundaries. --Vitenka (whose thoughts on the legitimacy of this have shifted somewhat)
Why do bad boundaries get set? A parent tells their child "Don't go near the wasp nest." or possibly "Don't go near the wasp nest, you'll get stung.". A parent wanting to make sure a young child understands and remembers isn't going to go into probabilities or what sort of behaviours are more likely to make wasps aggressive. Or say, but if you are running away from a mad bull, it is ok to risk being stung. And once the parent has made this pronoucement, they are unlikely to revisit it, to see if circumstances have changed, to ask "Are you being majorly inconvenienced by this? It is worth my clarifying further?".
No, it is up to the child to test the boundaries. To push at rules and see which ones are sensible ("Don't put your finger in light bulb sockets", "Don't insert marbles in your nostril") and which have some give ("Don't turn on your light after light's-out time"). --DR
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CategoryGivePeopleABoundaryAndTheyHaveToTestIt