Oh I can oblige you there.

Please, explain to me the difference between "following trends blindly" and "learning from older developers' experience"?

Because both of them look remarkably like cargo-culting appeals to authority.

Folks constantly rant about the reinvention of the wheel, but i think they're missing the point. Everyone talks about how wonderful it is that digital and web-based technologies allow for rapid prototyping and failing fast which in turn results in the ability to experiment.

And then they turn around and criticize people for experimenting accusing them of not learning from their elders or whatever. Learning is a process. You learn by doing. Even if you have to rediscover what other folks have discovered in the past.