5 ms·
Like anything in life, context is everything. This "Don't reinvent the wheel" thing comes from the observation some people (software engineers in this case ) t
by PedroBatista 4y ago
Like anything in life, context is everything.
This "Don't reinvent the wheel" thing comes from the observation some people (software engineers in this case ) tend to spend a huge amount of time ( aka money ) creating things that were already created AND could just be used by them. It's a very valid point, especially when you have to pay salaries every month and don't have a money printing machine.
However.. the motto is also used to justify mental laziness and protect egos from ignorance.
People learn by doing, you can read all the books you want and you'll be a very competent parrot but you'll never really know. The question is, what do you choose to know and what to you choose to parrot? Since time is finite (for you ).
- jesuscript 4y agoOr more importantly, definitely re-invent the wheel on your own fucking time.
- panzerboiler 4y agoTime is being stolen to work on uninteresting things, and should be reclaimed.
- nz 4y agoRelated to inventing, reinventing, and adopting-the-already-existing: Alan Kay on inventing the future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id1WShzzMCQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id1WShzzMCQ Jonathan Blow on "reinventing" your own game engines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOtxjOLst2k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOtxjOLst2k
- throwaway71271 4y agoCasey Muratori on "don't reinvent the wheel": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQeqsn7JJWA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQeqsn7JJWA
- nz 4y agoThis was quite good! The money quote: "It always bothers me when people say 'why reinvent the wheel', because the wheel is an _amazing_ invention. It is almost perfect -- or quite possibly perfect -- for what it does. It perfectly turns static friction into dynamic friction for moving objects. It is something that so elegant and beautiful, that if you were to ask why we would want to reinvent it, I would say _of course_ we do not want to reinvent it. It has worked for thousands of years, and has been unchanged for thousands of years. _Nothing_ we have developed in the past 30 years of game-development, is a wheel. In the future we will have so much more powerful tools for game development, that people will laugh at the things we did to make games. If we want _to get to_ a wheel, we need people that will _attempt to make the wheel_."
- panzerboiler 4y ago> The most "interesting thing" (happened in computing since the shut down of Xerox PARC) has been the contrast between appreciation/exploitation of the inventions/contributions vs. the almost complete lack of curiosity and interest in the processes that produced them. > Alan Kay
- hef19898 4y agoLike, e.g., developing a manufacturing execution system, from scratch instead of just buying the one from the company your ERP vendor just acquired.