The rules of training?

I was listening to a podcast which was covering the topic of poligamy (multiple wives) and the author was discussing whether this was right or wrong and the rules. I started to think, for some unknown reason, what are the rules for this?  Who decided on these rules? Well in this case it appears to be a mixture of religion and society type norms. When you broaden this out to all rules – where do rules come from? It appears to me that they come from religion, the majority opinion (supposed to be the majority anyway), facts (?), research and society’s values. When you look at that list you start to realise that rules exist because many people like boundaries. They like the line in the sand drawn clearly for them even if that line is pretty shaker for another group of people with a different viewpoint. Rules are often just an opinion – sometimes held by the majority of the group. What has this got to do with training? Over many years I have seen many trainers, teaches etc talking about the rules of training, in other words the things you must do to get training to work. I know I have done it at times. But is that true? I’m not sure anymore. There are some good guidelines but even they can be ignored and learning will still occur sometimes more effectively. This applies to both face to face training and elearning. At present I haven’t seen any research which clearly states whether elearning works or doesn’t but everyone has an opinion and rules are being set up. Many people state that elearning is also breaking the fundamental rules as to how training/education works and for that very reason it can’t work. Do you follow the rules of training design and facilitation ? Do you do this because it easier and you feel comfortable? I think it is time to break some of those rules, experiment and see what really works or doesn’t. Rules are rules but they were meant to be broken.