Just today, I was discussing with a friend about the lack of tail calls in mainstream languages (outside of FP), and how the typical reason cited ("you lose debug stack traces!") makes no sense under any scrutiny (the stack losses from looping are necessarily total, yet tail calls can easily be implemented flexibly to allow for optional stack growth in certain situations like debugging). So we get more complexity (iterative loops) because the pop culture of software development repeats irrational conclusions (apparently) without thinking.
Same goes for folk advice like "never rewrite" (okay, okay, it went badly for Netscape once, or something), "never build your own tools/languages" (yes, this isn't software, but the Empire State Building was constructed within a single year by a firm that constructed all of its own tools custom for the job), "role-based access control is necessary for security" (capabilities are actually quite cool), "always reset your password every three months" (lulz). There are many others.
I am starting to believe that behind every phrase of false but universally-accepted IT folk wisdom s a billion dollar idea waiting to be demonstrated; extra if you can combine a few together AND give the currently lost wanderers out there a bridge to the simpler, more enduring way.