It happens all too often. "New Development. New Technology. And New Sacrifices." When the new is developed too fast, much of what was old is lost. Without dedication to remembering what came before, it will be forgotten, and all the wisdom of the ancients will be lost.

When you have a hard problem, seek out the solution put forth by the ancients. Understand the solution even if you will not be adopting it. The guiding principles behind it may well be guiding principles behind the new solution.

Possible Examples:

* CommandLineInterface (perhaps harder to learn, but sometimes much faster than mousing if done well)

* TableOrientedProgramming - Some lament that the move from "everything is a table" to "everything is an object" burried a lot of good ideas.

(I vaguely remember a similar to topic to this. Time for a merge-hunt perhaps.)
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''much of what was old is lost''

Really? What, you guys ran out of paper and pencil? You couldn't write down what the old crap was supposed to do in the first place, but never succeeded in accomplishing?

Pfft.