It is both possible and desirable to build into a product a strong set of assumptions and useful defaults which can be easily overridden when your assumptions d

It is both possible and desirable to build into a product a strong set of assumptions and useful defaults which can be easily overridden when your assumptions do not hold for every case. The problem with settings and option flags is when a user needs to set a great deal of them to get anything done. Smart defaults for the common case are useful. Overrides for the uncommon case expand that utility to more cases. These two ideas are not mutually exclusive. They are, in fact, a pragmatic and helpful combination. Have defaults. Allow overrides of them.