3 ms·
I think what the author is talking about is redesign and not reinvention. According to Wikipedia "Reinventing the wheel is a phrase that means to duplicate a ba
by tarunkotia 16y ago
I think what the author is talking about is redesign and not reinvention. According to Wikipedia "Reinventing the wheel is a phrase that means to duplicate a basic method that has already previously been created or optimised by others".
What I understand and interpret is "method" implies "concept". Reinventing the "concept" of wheel does not make sense especially if your end product is not wheel but a car. The connotation here is more do with the focus than improving the current solution. If you fundamentally want to redefine the rolling motion of wheel with something else then I think the phrase applies more appropriately.
- vog 16y agoI fully agree with this. Moreover, the phrase "Don't reinvent the wheel" is not meant to stop you from reimplementing stuff. I just means that you should have a close look at what already exists before reimplementing it, so you don't follow the path of trials and errors that others have already gone for you. The best sign that someone reinvented the wheel is that the "new" stuff is completely inferior to what already exists. And this appears to happen quite often. So in my experience, the phrase "Don't reinvent the wheel" is merely meant to counteract the NIH syndrome.