# Why do we keep reinventing the wheel?



## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

Reading Crabapple's post about pottery got me to thinking about why we seem to be constantly reinvent the wheel here...

The simplest answer to me is that because since we no longer sit around fires and pass along knowledge, if a member here doesn't ask how to make or do something or tell the rest of us how, that skill can be lost for a long time, if not forever. It might not be a skill or knowledge that you need today, but every exposure we have to things that we have little or no experience with increases the chance that if we have make use of them later, we have some idea of what we need to do. Even if we don't become subject matter experts we have some clues to go with. We'll make mistakes, but at least they are somewhat informed mistakes.

The opposite side of the coin are the people who make no effort to learn the hows and why's of the way things work. They have never heard of tempering metal, making a fired clay pot, or most of the other myriad obscure topics that seem to populate the discussions here now and then. They have never heard of, much less read any of the Foxfire books. Most think that because it's like it is today, it has always been that way. They don't see that where we are today is representative of many small steps, and that it's very easy and very probable that at some point, we can slide back to the stone age in the blink of an eye.

So, it doesn't bother me a bit when we reinvent the wheel. It makes us stronger and more self sufficient when we not only know why we need the wheel, but how it works and how to make it.


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

I have always lived by the idea of not putting all your Eggs in one Basket, that's why I am a big proponent of learning the "old ways" or even "ancient" ways. I killed two Deer this year with my 30-30, but it's pretty cool that I could have taken them with my Bow, or even my Atlatl. Always learn more than one way to do something, the knowledge will never let you down.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

Once in a while, someone will ask me why I want to learn about this or that. I always answer "I want to know how to do everything" 

It has always amazed me how many people don't know how to do anything, and have no desire to learn.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

The one thing that will help us after the fall of thing as we know it.
Is the scrap metal, plastic & you tube,blogs & sites like this.
More people today are blacksmithes then anytime in history & as many can melt & pour soft metals.
Most people only need an IDEAL to start them on the right path.
Anyone can learn any 100 year old tec on the net.
All we need is a want to.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

You never know when you're going to need a certain skill & even though you classify a skill in your "someday maybe" category, listening to others talk about that skill is helpful. Bees were on my "someday maybe" list until last year's squash didn't make because there were no bees to pollinate. Because I'd "heard" y'all talk about raising bees, I knew they weren't a huge amount of trouble so we took a little detour from our plan & learned to tend bees. Sometimes life chooses when & if we learn a particular skill, not us.


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

Yep, the ancient University of Hard Knocks...


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

*"Why do we keep reinventing the wheel?"*

Way back when I was young I worked for a small Town. Replacing 3/4" iron pipe and lead goose-necks water services with 3/4" K copper.

Salesman watch me trying to make the bend into the water main. "You know copper is expensive?" The Salesman asked. "PE is cheaper, easier to curve and fits all of your copper compression fittings."

My reply was, "We been using copper for quite awhile, I see no need to change." I thought about my reply for awhile. "I sound like someone that is stuck in their ways. Send me a roll of PE and we'll try it." Other then having to run a separate tracer wire loved that PE pipe.

Not so long ago I was "training" a summer High School employee. I had shut the power off to a relay, showed him to use a volt meter to confirm the power was off. Then I drew a picture of the relay, the wire terminals and what colored wire went to each terminal. That is how my Dad taught me. I explained why I made the drawing to the High School kid, to insure the relay and wires were reinstalled correctly.

High School kid looked at me, took out his cell phone and took a picture of the relay. Yep a picture would be better then my crude drawing.

So reinventing, or giving it a hard look anyway, isn't necessarily bad.

On the other hand these Millennials that are graduating from college with the comprehension of a six year old. Too averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion and wasn't taught how to think. They rename everything because they can't/don't/will not remember the correct terms...or based on all of their perceived wisdom insist their way is better.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

Re-inventing the wheel is a total wasted of time and money I have seen a person go thru lots of labor and sweat for something that has been on the shelves for a long time proven to be reliable and cheap ,now learning long forgotten practices or trades is another matter like baking without yeast or making baking powder from scratch or using clay to make a dirt oven or using hand power tools to make furniture or build a house or even making your own nuts and bolts from raw metal stock .I remember our blacksmith shop with the charcoal smelter/furnace anvil and those very heavy hammers that my family used to make the tools for the farm and kitchen to include rivets ,nuts and bolts or metal forging by hammering the hot metal ,now those trades are not about re-inventing the wheel they are old forgotten trades that will come useful some day and I pray that I never have to see it.


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## AuntB (Nov 24, 2015)

jeff47041 said:


> Once in a while, someone will ask me why I want to learn about this or that. I always answer "I want to know how to do everything"
> 
> It has always amazed me how many people don't know how to do anything, and have no desire to learn.


I think the issue is asking questions. So many people will not ask questions. Yes there are dumb questions but when you are asking for people to share knowledge and skills, I do not think of those as dumb questions. I think people are also afraid to admit they do not know. What really irks me is when I ask a question on a prep/survival site and I am told to google it or are given a link. I could have done that but I ask somethings on certain sites because I know there is a wealth of true hands on knowledge that I really want to learn.


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

TheLazyL said:


> I explained why I made the drawing to the High School kid, to insure the relay and wires were reinstalled correctly.
> 
> High School kid looked at me, took out his cell phone and took a picture of the relay. Yep a picture would be better then my crude drawing.
> 
> So reinventing, or giving it a hard look anyway, isn't necessarily bad.


I can't argue against that logic, LazyL...

I agree that if there is a better way of doing something, by all means, do it that way. But if we never reinvent the wheel, at some point that knowledge may be lost, so the more ways we have to make or do anything stored in man's collective memory may be very helpful one day.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

AuntB said:


> I think the issue is asking questions. So many people will not ask questions. Yes there are dumb questions but when you are asking for people to share knowledge and skills, I do not think of those as dumb questions. I think people are also afraid to admit they do not know. What really irks me is when I ask a question on a prep/survival site and I am told to google it or are given a link. I could have done that but I ask somethings on certain sites because I know there is a wealth of true hands on knowledge that I really want to learn.


You can't be talking about this site ?? vract:


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## tmttactical (Nov 23, 2015)

TheLazyL said:


> *"Why do we keep reinventing the wheel?"*
> 
> Way back when I was young I worked for a small Town. Replacing 3/4" iron pipe and lead goose-necks water services with 3/4" K copper.
> 
> ...


I always told my employees " I don't want you to work harder --- I want you to work smarter". If you were there to get a paycheck, you got a paycheck. If you improved the department, you got the bonus and the paycheck. It was amazing how many SMART people got the message.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

jeff47041 said:


> Once in a while, someone will ask me why I want to learn about this or that. I always answer "I want to know how to do everything"
> 
> It has always amazed me how many people don't know how to do anything, and have no desire to learn.


Some people have no desire to learn, because if they do not know something or how to do something, they can not be asked to do tasks or chores relative to that skill, or they can decline to do that because "I don't know how". Some people play the helpless, or the princess, the special person, or "I can't because...". In many situations, this shifts the expectation to the overworked person who can or will. I wonder how that will work in a SHTF situation?


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## AuntB (Nov 24, 2015)

Tirediron said:


> You can't be talking about this site ?? vract:


 No but there are places out there where the members expect people to be at a certain "level" of knowledge.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

AuntB said:


> No but there are places out there where the members expect people to be at a certain "level" of knowledge.


I get that,but we all were born ignorant, some of us learn a lot at a young age.
I was raised on a farm & thought this is what everyone did.
At 12 year old I heard a class mate who complained about taking out the trash everyday & mowing the lawn once a week.
I told him I milked cows every evening, split fire that we cut on the week ends.
Plowed the small garden with a mule & the large garden with a tractor.
Put up fence, repair fence & put up vegetables, killed our chickens & pigs.
He said "That a lie, no one done that since cave men".
So if some one ask me the best way to split wood I will give them the " A B C's" of how I split wood & why.
That the way I was taught & that the way I teach.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

AuntB said:


> No but there are places out there where the members expect people to be at a certain "level" of knowledge.


I agree that there are some "special" people out in forum land. 
Use the search engine they say, have they tried the search engine??

Questions and discussion keep forums alive, even if they may have been discussed before, and sometimes things change over time or with new discoveries.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

weedygarden said:


> Some people have no desire to learn..decline to do that because "I don't know how". ...


Now that you dragged my in-laws into the discussions ... 

That _was_ their favorite phrase.

_"I don't know how"_

"Have you ever tried to?" I would ask them.

_"What?"_

"Have you ever tried to?"

_"No"_

"Then how do you know you can't?" would be my reply. :scratch

Boy would my reply get them upset! :lalala:

They were raised to play the "helpless" card. Why do an Internet search when a "poor is me" routine would get someone to do the research for them?

Why should they educate themselves when a tear and sad eyes would get someone else to do the work (and pay for it too)?

Mother-in-law is a jewel.

Father-in-law & sister-in-laws :nuts:


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