[turnsout]

There's a big difference between "reinventing the wheel" and simply making your own wheel. People often conflate the two.

e.g. making your own static site generator is not reinventing the wheel. It's making your own wheel, which is a perfectly cromulent use of time.

[TobLoef]

To me this is one of the differences between making a wheel for learning or a wheel for innovation, as I mention in the blog. The latter can truly be reinvention, while the former is indeed often more like simply making your own wheel.

[convolvatron]

there is an implicit assumption that we've all settled on what transportation looks like. its a car with 4 wheels, and windows, and a chassis and a glovebox. there are already a whole spectrum of gloveboxes we can but, open source, SaaS, etc.

why would you make a new glovebox. its got a latch, and a hinge.

maybe I dont even want to build a car.