Reinventing the wheel
Idiomatic expression, meaning to waste effort on something that has already been achieved / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For the album by Asleep at the Wheel, see Reinventing the Wheel (album).
"inventing the wheel" redirects here. For a factual discussion, see Wheel § History.
To reinvent the wheel is to attempt to duplicate—most likely with inferior results—a basic method that has already previously been created or optimized by others.
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (April 2009) |
The inspiration for this idiomatic metaphor is that the wheel is an ancient archetype of human ingenuity (one so profound that it continues to underlie much of modern technology). As it has already been invented and is not considered to have any inherent flaws, an attempt to reinvent it would add no value to it and be a waste of time, diverting the investigator's resources from possibly more worthy goals.