Debunking Myth: Reinventing the wheel
What comes to your mind when you see the above image?
I hope, you all have heard about this management 101 rule “No point reinventing the wheel”
Do you believe in it, well I Don’t.
What if I say that reason of continuous evolution of humans is the curiosity of knowing unknown or the attitude of looking back.
What if everyone thought the same way, about all the problems then we would still be using the same wooden cart wheel for transportation.
But some of us didn’t and challenged the very basic idea of transportation, allowing us to reach where we are.
In this article we will talk about why and how and some common speculations about the topic.
What is Reinventing the Wheel :
Lets do a very basic Exercise.
Read all the instructions below and write the order on page in which you have followed all of them.
- Write logic to Check if given number is odd or not.
- Test the above logic with inputs : 4,3,5 7
- If logic worked fine with all given inputs, write Yes on the page else keep on building the logic.
- Check the required logic available over the internet and use the same.
Probable Order of steps :
Order A. If your order of steps is 1,2,3,4
Order B. If your order of steps is 4,2,3,1
Scenario 1 : Order A
Issue:
You might be called as not smart, as you may take more time to solve it.
Advantages:
You may come up with better approach than existing ones.
Scenario 2: Order B
Issue:
You might be called as smart/fast , as you just looked the best available solution so far.
Advantages:
You just reduced the chances of you coming up with better solutions to zero.
Who should do it:
Ever wondered what it takes to develop problem solving skills, well its this strong feeling of knowing the unknown, and the urge of coming up with better solutions.
So if you want to develop some real kickass problem solving skills or come up with one of its kind solution, you should definitely give it a try.
The Final Verdict:
We are living in result oriented times, where you will be judged by the outcome of your work based on certain factors such as fast, accuracy, and completeness.
So if you have only these factors in mind then it might not be good idea to get into the business of reinventing the wheel.
Well, scroll up see the wheel evolution image, it says it all, Why wheel needs reinventing.
