Depends on the situation, I'd say. When coding for fun or to learn there's absolutely nothing wrong with reinventing the wheel, or taking apart somebody else's wheel to figure out those weird spoke thingies. When there's careers on the line, deadlines to be met or a crisis to be averted, well, whatever gets the job done gets the job done, right?

As for the following comment:
I personally usually shy away from starting something new, especially when I see that it is a default behaviour for most unexperienced people and how pathethic such projects usually are.

Better to try and fail(assuming no damage is done) then to do nothing at all...