There is no expert, there is only us

Chairs in my office

Once I was chatting with my teammates...

Me: "I wonder why it is always necessary to refer to this source, that source, has anyone done it, is there any research? While no problem is the same, no situation is the same. Why not use our own brains to create a whole new one? Why do we have to be the insiders to consult the outsiders? Isn't that very paradoxical?"

My teammate: "I agree with your point that no two situations will be exactly the same and that there is no one size fits all. But there's one like this, I don't think it's all the problems we're dealing with that only we can meet. So of course, if I can find a source to refer to first, it's still better. Just like when implementing a software feature, not every problem is the same. But I still have to go check to see if I'm the only one I've met? Or if someone has met me, I have to see if their method suits me before I decide to try it, but I don't blindly "they do it, I follow it". I want to find one that can balance Do Not Repeat (+ YAGNI) and Not Invented Here."

Me: "This is the climax and the difference between your point of view and mine. I still don't think something pre-reference is better. For me, we lose our creativity from that moment on. When faced with a problem, in the past, normally, I would act instinctively “How does the world solve this problem? Has anyone encountered this problem?”, but now “Wait! slowly....“, instead I try to ask myself “how am I going to deal with this”, because I know “there is no expert, there is only us”, which means we are the best people in this problem, what is our idea first? And obviously, no one can fully understand, so the step of finding out and referencing is the next step, not the first one. There are many cases where I don't have a pre-reference but I want to see how my idea will work in practice, I want to see that idea lives, and be verified by the real world."

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