“Humans have these stupid maxims instead of intelligence. Here’s a great example: ‘Stop trying to re-invent the wheel.’ Here’s the problem. Most of what intelligence -is- is re-inventing the wheel, and there are all sorts of relational and intellectual assets that -can only be acquired that way-.

So the reasonable goal is to not re-invent the wheel where a wheel is all that is required. But you -definitely- want to re-invent the wheel when what is required is that you go, in person, and -have the experiences of development, failure, hardship, wonder, and insight- that result in shockingly revolutionary novelty and understanding.

So yeah, re-invent the wheel. And you can deposit your contextless maxims in their appropriate storage locality… with the nightsoil.”

— an anonymous inventor