Reinventing the Wheel

"There is no need to reinvent the wheel" - we have all heard this statement or at least used it at some point in our lives to push the narrative that what's important is getting the work done and not rebuilding from scratch.

Modern technology and finance have benefitted exactly from this. We keep building newer concepts based on the first principles of the old. Like Newton would say "By standing on the shoulders of other giants", (our ancestors) we have been able to peer further out to create many of the marvels of our present world.

So in the spirit of not reinventing the wheel, we end up building needless layers of abstraction on top of the existing fabric. While the new layers become seemingly easier to understand and use the minds capable of understanding the foundation slowly retire and what we have is a generation where our technology gets worse rather than better.

On other occasions, we have few people willing enough to counter the status quo by asking "Why?".

"Why do we approach logic gates to program instructions, is there no other way?"

"Why do we use fuels to power rockets can we find atomic particles that can easily counter gravity?"

These "why" questions birth most of what we call disruptions; Disruptions very rarely begin with the specific need to prove a point or become disruptions; They usually begin with curiosity to wonder if alternate directions exist to the current way things are done.

So about reinventing the wheel...

Applying it to how we think

Sometimes we have to take short pauses to reimagine the problem we are trying to solve. Sometimes your solution is perfect, but the system you designed has inherent flaws that have only become obvious as you scale; Solutions to flawed systems only tend to maintain the problems but do not solve them indefinitely.

So yes, sometimes wheels need to be reinvented - especially when the approach has inherent flaws that would only become exaggerated with another extra piece;

In 2024, view problems with this lens. When it seems like an extra solution is going to only make the problem worse, begin to think about it from first principles. Sometimes first principles thinking births a new approach to doing things. We might end up changing the wheels not necessarily re-inventing it.

Selah!!!