Idioms: reinvent the wheel
Do something again, from the beginning, especially in a needless or inefficient effort, as in School committees need not reinvent the wheel every time they try to improve the curriculum. This expression alludes to the invention of a simple but very important device that requires no improvement. [Second half of 1900s]
To design or implement a tool equivalent to an existing one or part of one, with the implication that doing so is silly or a waste of time. This is often a valid criticism. On the other hand, automobiles don't use wooden rollers, and some kinds of wheel have to be reinvented many times before you get them right. On the third hand, people reinventing the wheel do tend to come up with the moral equivalent of a trapezoid with an offset axle.
Reinventing the wheel (aka. "Not built here") is a phrase that means a generally accepted technique or solution is ignored in favor of a locally invented solution. To "reinvent the wheel" is to duplicate a basic method that has long since been accepted and even taken for granted.
The inspiration for this idiomatic metaphor lies in the fact that the wheel is the archetype of human ingenuity, both by virtue of the added power and flexibility it affords its users, and also in the ancient origins which allow it to underlie much, if not all, of modern technology. As it is not considered to have operational flaws, an attempt to reinvent it would be pointless and add no value to the object, and would be a waste of time, diverting the investigator's resources from possibly more worthy goals which his or her skills could advance more substantially.
At the same time, however, "reinventing the wheel" is an important tool in the instruction of complex ideas. Rather than providing students simply with a list of known facts and techniques and expecting them to incorporate these ideas perfectly and rapidly, the instructor instead will build up the material anew, leaving the student to work out those key steps which embody the reasoning characteristic of the field.
(more.......)
http://www.answers.com/reinvent%20the%20wheel
But maybe you are wondering what got me thinking of this, in the first place? Well, it's that I've hear people use the phrase "re-invent the wheel" in both a positive and negative sense. Usually, it is in the negative (meaning a sort of scoffing, that people should not or need not re-do something basic which previous generations have long ago done) -- but not always.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/25/messages/246.html
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/25/
1. (idiomatic) To redo work unnecessarily when it has already been done satisfactorily; to rethink an already working system, technique, etc. in a pointless attempt to improve it.
Just use the database as it is and don't try to reinvent the wheel.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reinvent_the_wheel
(jargon)
To design or implement a tool equivalent to an existing one or part of one, with the implication that doing so is silly or a waste of time. This is often a valid criticism. On the other hand, automobiles don't use wooden rollers, and some kinds of wheel have to be reinvented many times before you get them right. On the third hand, people reinventing the wheel do tend to come up with the moral equivalent of a trapezoid with an offset axle.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=reinvent+the+wheel&r=66
to waste time trying to develop products or systems that you think are original when in fact they have already been done before.
"Why reinvent the wheel when there are drugs already on the market that are effective?"
to discover how to do something that has already been discovered.
"We've had a lot of experience with disasters, and don't have to reinvent the wheel every time something happens."
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/reinvent+the+wheel