[bmn__]

I can make a guess: GP does not know, he started working on the software and pointlessly duplicated existing projects, but with worse quality, because he neglected to survey the landscape.

I have noticed that happening regularly and out of curiousity interviewed those fellow programmers. I found out it's not because of lack of diligence, or because they attribute no value to a survey, but because of a risk-loving psychology trait that expresses itself in staking out ground and claiming it as one's own. (Armchair psychology warning, I am not qualified to make that conclusion; leave the real work confirming this hypothesis to the scientists in the field.)

IMO, this behaviour is harmful and we should work together to socially shun it like we already do for compulsive hoarding of physical objects. We have trouble finding a piece of software that works well because we spend so much effort to repeatedly sift through the mountains of published software that is mostly garbage.

[shangxiao]

Couldn't be further from the truth, see my reply.