On my own projects I'll sometimes "reinvent the wheel" on purpose. It's a good way to make learning mistakes. For better or worse, I tend to learn from making mistakes.
At work though, my employer isn't really paying me so I can experience personal growth. I'm try to deliver value as efficiently as I can.
I've done this long enough to know that the "easiest" problems can have subtle bugs. Think of the singleton pattern: if you write one "without looking at the answer" you invariably make a small mistake that introduces a race condition. That's why I Google even "easy" problems.
That said, I can't do math in my head very well any more - calculators have robbed me of day to day practice and my 8th grade math skills are flabby now. (My degree is in math so it's especially embarrassing.)
At work though, my employer isn't really paying me so I can experience personal growth. I'm try to deliver value as efficiently as I can.
I've done this long enough to know that the "easiest" problems can have subtle bugs. Think of the singleton pattern: if you write one "without looking at the answer" you invariably make a small mistake that introduces a race condition. That's why I Google even "easy" problems.
That said, I can't do math in my head very well any more - calculators have robbed me of day to day practice and my 8th grade math skills are flabby now. (My degree is in math so it's especially embarrassing.)