Reinvent the Wheel

The expression "don't reinvent the wheel" is often used as a polite way to say "don't waste your time." While this advice usually comes from a good place — it sure does suck to waste your time — it isn't always as helpful as people think. There are plenty of good reasons to reinvent the wheel, whether it's to learn deeply about a subject or simply because you enjoy the process. Although Matthias Endler doesn't quite put it this way, I feel strongly that today's cars would be much worse if we had never reinvented the original wheel.

Even on a surface level, the advice is bad: We have much better wheels today than 4500–3300 BCE when the first wheel was invented. It was also crucially important that wheels got reinvented throughout civilizations and cultures.

Note: When I say “wheel” throughout this post, please replace it with whatever tool, protocol, service, technology, or other invention you’re personally interested in.

Towards a Broader Victory

Society often measures success through competition, valuing determination, resilience, and drive. However, true impact sometimes arises from different motivations. For instance, Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation was not driven by competitiveness but by his openness to the world. His unique way of looking at the world allowed him to connect physics and calculus, like no one had before. These insights extend beyond science, and once you notice it once or twice, you'll start seeing it everywhere.

It’s hard not to feel unmoved when witnessing so many hard-working athletes finally reap the rewards of their unfathomable dedication; and it’s often equally moving when failure arrives, as it does of course to most.

Because for every Simone Biles there are uncountable numbers who finish leagues away from the podium and yet are still joyously living out their dream with a deeply impressive combination of grace and sportsmanship. In fact, as the example of Simone Biles so vividly highlights, even the most eminent athlete has had to forthrightly confront the pain of losing in order to push herself on to still greater victories.

As any experienced competitor will tell you, true competition isn’t just about avoiding losing. It’s about finding a way to successfully deal with it.

Sanding UI

It's easy to start a new project; anyone can do that. But what makes any creative endeavor special are the finishing touches. Much like Jim Nielsen, I spend a lot of time making Plinky feel polished and perfect. Sometimes, though, I realize it's not as perfect as I thought it was, and I feel compelled to make it even more perfect. Simply repeat this process 1,000 times, and you have an app that gets featured on the App Store, a blog post that goes viral, or a beautiful piece of art that people praise whenever they see it.

One of the ways I like to do development is to build something, click around a ton, make tweaks, click around more, more tweaks, more clicks, etc., until I finally consider it done.

The clicking around a ton is the important part. If it’s a page transition, that means going back and forth a ton. Click, back button. Click, right-click context menu, “Back”. Click, in-app navigation to go back (if there is one). Click, keyboard shortcut to go back. Over and over and over. You get the idea.

It’s kind of a QA tactic in a sense, just click around and try to break stuff. But I like to think of it as being more akin to woodworking.