Reinvent the wheel: Why I gave my engineering team a chance for a do-over

"Don’t reinvent the wheel", the idiom cautions us. It’s a phrase that seems wise on the surface, a reminder not to spend time creating something that already exists. Too often, however, the idiom has been deployed as an admonition, a warning to not upset the way things are, even when those things are outmoded or just plain wrong. Creative engineering minds, thankfully, generally ignore that kind of advice or we would all still try to get around on wooden rims and spokes. Wheels -- and many other things -- do frequently need to be reinvented to take advantage of advances… [Continue Reading]