Reinventing the wheel might be the best thing you can do

Reinventing the wheel is bad for society, but awesome for you.

3, 2, 1 GO!

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S T O P.


T H I N K.

We have an epidemic of spirit obesity.

The most accessible sport of the mind is thinking. We should practice that, like we practice running or going to the gym to keep in shape.

We don’t say: someone ran today or someone lifted these weights today, so I shouldn’t do it. But we do say: meh, this thing is already invented, this other thing is already established, this here is out of my expertise and more lame excuses of the lazy spirit.

We must reinvent.

Reinvent the wheel. Then reinvent cars.

Reinvent arrows. Then reinvent rockets.

Reinvent _____. Then reinvent _______.

Reinvent everything.

Thinking is the best thing you can do while you’re alive. Its not sex. Its not travel. Not food or friends. Not family time, nor play or dance. Not poetry, nor prose.

Thinking by yourself.

This is what you are meant to do as the advanced primate you are: to think.

Thinking, just like any other activity, is sometimes mistaken for other things.

Walking your pooch is not physical activity. A shower is not physical activity. Jerking your leg while sitting is not physical activity. Physical activity is physical activity. Run, jump, lift, bend, roll, then again, then again.

When you sweat, it’s physical activity.

Reading is not thinking. Listening is not thinking. Opinionating on matters is not thinking. Thinking is thinking. Imagine, infer, deduct, interpret, then again, then again.

When you understand, it’s thinking.

The wall

As a programmer I once developed a framework. I am a proud dude, so I started bugging everyone to check it out. I received both laughs and appreciations, they were all welcome. But one reaction stood out:

“Why did you try to build yet another framework? Do you really think you’ll be smarter? Smarter than horde who already build hundreds of frameworks?”.

This bothered me. What do you mean, “do I really think I’ll be smarter”? Of course I do!

This is the wall of thinking, just like the wall a marathon runner must pass through, there is a wall of thinking. It’s called: don’t reinvent the wheel. Oh, that dreaded thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitting_the_wall

Fear of reinventing the wheel makes the spirit sedentary. Reinventing the wheel is the treadmill of thinking.

This problem stems from our basic conditioning of advancing the species. We do not want to retake the same issues and rediscover them, because that rarely brings progress. Yet, this doesn’t take into account that as you get higher in the level of abstraction, your grasp on the original intention gets weaker.

Going from generation to generation a society’s original intention is continually diluted and, even worse, sometimes completely replaced. This happens because we teach and preach to take what we’ve already discovered and build on the shoulders of giants.

What if Atlas really shrugged? What would still stand?


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