Boy: I want to draw a door for my house drawing...
Teacher: Google it..
Boy: I found it. house-door.jpg. It seems popular. A lot of stars.
Teacher: download it, cut and paste to your paper.
Boy:Can I draw it myself?
Teacher: yes.. but this is easier, isn't it? Don't reinvent the wheel.
Boy: but, this door does not match with my french window.
Teacher: oh, integrate french windows with door? Try to search house-door-french-window.jpg. maybe someone already did something like that?

Is there a subject called as "Google search"? 😂

Seems good to me. People need to stop producing the same thing over and over again.

@Pavr Yet, optimization for your particular case is always good. :D

Def should be searching on pexels 😂

Sure if you feel like you can do it better, by all means do it.

I'm surprised how many people can't use Google... In the past people went to libraries. Like physical libraries! How amazing and much harder is that?!

@Alice it's not a copyright violation because it is for educational use.

@Pavr I disagree.

Almost all existing implementations for all conceivable problems are flawed in some way.

Evolution has proved for millions of years that reiterations with small adjustments is a great way to optimize for specific use cases. Repeatedly reusing from the same pool is called inbreeding.

"Don't reinvent the wheel" is a dangerous platitude. Please go build a new ORM (all existing ones suck), create a new blogging system, even write your own encryption!

Reinventing the wheel increases your understanding of subjects.

Of course you shouldn't use your home-built oval glass wheel in production right away... But now that you are a wheel builder, at least you have a basis for comparison, and can judge that industry standard wheel with the eyes of an expert.