“Don’t reinvent the wheel” was one of the first buzzwords I ever heard. It made a lot of sense for me. When I started this blog series, I knew this one would be covered.
However, as I thought about it, my perspective changed. I originally thought ALL things should be reinvented to keep them relevant.
But some things should NOT be reinvented. Why reinvent when what you have is good enough?
Most people who know me know one of my hobbies is competition BBQ. I’ve done five contests over the past couple of years, scoring a third place in brisket and a fourth place in ribs.
Competition cooking is fun, but lots of work. You pack up everything, including wood and go to the designated site. You put up your tents, set up tables, fill all your coolers, have the meat inspected, then settle in for a 12–15-hour cook. That means being up most of the night.
Usually, you start your fire around midnight, then after an hour to let the wood burn down to coals, you put on your brisket. About two hours later, your pork shoulders, and then at 8AM, your ribs. Chicken only takes about two hours, so you must do the math depending on when the judging starts. This is the tricky part of BBQ.
You must make sure your temps stay steady, your meat doesn’t cook too fast or slow, you don’t fall asleep and let your fire burn down, plus account for wind, rain, heat, humidity, or any other acts of nature. BBQ is a 3-legged stool of flavor, temperature, and luck. You need all three.
In the late morning and early afternoon, judging begins, first for chicken, then ribs, pulled pork, then finally brisket. If you’re good and lucky, you might place in the top five. Where else can you drop 1500.00 to compete for a 500.00 prize?
When I first started out, I did EVERYTHING from scratch, including the BBQ sauces and rubs. I soon realized though that there are way too many variables to add in more with custom sauces and rubs. After all, they contain all the same stuff such as salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, brown sugar (and every pitmaster has their “secret” ingredients). So, I found a few that I really like (Killer Hogs brand by Malcom Reed) and just use them. When it comes to competitive BBQ, why reinvent the wheel? There are plenty of other things to worry about than mixing your own spices and sauces.
If you’re someone who loves process improvement initiatives, you probably love reinventing what has been the status quo for a long time. Just resist the temptation to throw out EVERYTHING and start over. Some things are certainly past their prime, but not everything.
Also keep in mind that some things are just timeless. They don’t need replacing, maybe just refreshing. If you really want to make a difference, strive to make things timeless, but don’t let that get in the way of simply improving them.
And this means it’s not always the best idea to reinvent the wheel. In this case another buzz phrase comes to mind: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Trust me, there are no shortages of things and processes to improve.
