It seems to me that most people say, "don't reinvent..." because they believe there is an existing, ubiquitous, sufficient solution (well, that's why they think

It seems to me that most people say, "don't reinvent..." because they believe there is an existing, ubiquitous, sufficient solution (well, that's why they think it. Why they say it out loud as a response to someone's project, I have different theories on that). But in ubiquitous solutions, we also find assumptions and trade-offs that require constraining the application to fit the solution. Thus it is there, in those assumptions and trade-offs, as these literal wheel examples demonstrate, where we find the ability to usefully reinvent. I have to laugh a little seeing your reference to Mecanum wheels and your post being dated 6 hours ago. 12 hours ago, I rewatched the Star Trek reboot film. In it, there is a scene where the characters are all loading into shuttles to head off to their assignments. In the background, we are supposed to be impressed with the technical advancement of the machinery in view, e.g. how something as familiar as a forklift has "futuristic" details like strange wheels. And those wheels on that forklift are Mecanum wheels. In-story, that makes them something like ~300 year old technology.