Don't Reinvent The Wheel... Programming Edition

After starting my first real web app I have quickly been slapped in the face with a couple of realities. Don’t reinvent the wheel. This is corny, plaid-out and overused saying but it’s fucking true! I spent 2 days trying to get a part of my app to work because I want to code it from scratch. After not being able to figure out the solution I started fresh from a web app template. Long story short, I was able to finish a feature in my app much quicker. Why did I not start my app from the beginning this way? I wanted to prove that I could do it without a template. I would have eventually figured it out but why go through the struggles when I could just iterate off something that is already there. Not only that but I learned more from using the template than from starting from the dirt.

Have you had a similar situation? I can't be the only person this happened to 😂