Not invented here

Not Invented Here (NIH) is a term used to describe persistent social, corporate or institutional culture that avoids using or buying already existing products, research or knowledge because of their external origins. It is normally used in a pejorative sense, and may be considered an anti-pattern. The reasons for not wanting to use the work of others are varied but can include fear through lack of understanding, an unwillingness to value the work of others, or forming part of a wider "turf war". The opposite culture is sometimes denoted Proudly Found Elsewhere (PFE) or Invented Here.

As a social phenomenon, "Not Invented Here" syndrome is manifested as an unwillingness to adopt an idea or product because it originates from another culture, a form of nationalism.

In computing

An example is the low acceptance of early British-made home computers in Japan and the USA; and Japanese-made ones in Britain and the USA. For example the Timex Sinclair 2068 received almost no attention in the USA, while its Sinclair Spectrum predecessor became hugely successful in Britain and the rest of Europe. Similarly the Japanese/Dutch MSX home computer standard became successful in many countries but not in Britain and the USA, which produced competing systems. Likewise, British and American home computers were unable to establish a foothold in Japan. These cases may demonstrate both the "not invented here" and the "invented here" syndromes.

An argument for NIH is to guard against an aggressive action by another company buying up a technology supplier so as to create a captive market. This may also guard against future supply issues due to political unrest or other issues.

In programming, it is also common to refer to the NIH Syndrome as the tendency towards reinventing the wheel (reimplementing something that is already available) based on the belief that in-house developments are inherently better suited, more secure or more controlled than existing implementations.

In academia

In academic environments, the motivation for the NIH effect is twofold: first, resources from student workers are often paid in a lump sum (as a stipend, scholarship, or fixed salary) resulting in no variable increase in pay for more requested work; and second, the drive for publication at some institutions may drive repetition of work done at other institutions or in industry so that the researcher (and institution) may publish about their (repeated) work. Replication is, however, considered an important element in many areas of science as part of experimentation.

The quality of academic products developed from the NIH effect varies widely, mostly for the aforementioned reasons.

Another facet of academic NIH is by reference to the Bell Curve: most academics are above average intelligence, typically scoring over 110 on the standard IQ scale. However middle class upbringing and stable home life may have equipped them with a traditional range of middle class skills - languages, rapid reading and comprehension, general knowledge and mathematics but that doesn't imply automatic creativity or even the desire to create. Tenured or virtually tenured academics, by dint of high social status and social networks, can often not feel the desire for inventiveness. Traditional academic middle class snobbery of money and of the commercial middle class can place a stigma on innovativeness and competitiveness, see Freeman Dyson (ibid) scathing comments on English academics for instance.

Institutional snobbery from the Ivy league can unfairly penalise newer institutions and disenfranchise along the lines of class, race, gender and religion. A good example of this, perhaps, is the passing over of the Nobel prize to Rosalind Franklin or Jocelyn Bell Burnell. It seems that even today white, male, Judeo-Christian dominance and NIH will tend to push out contributions from the said groups (often to be "discovered" later by a more acceptable face). A blatant example of this effect is Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of the Americas despite people being already there!

Intellectual snobbery that comes from being powerful and unchallenged, is another facet too of NIH which can be viewed as hubris. Often, for instance, we hear in physics the theory of everything or the famous Michelson quote "the Physics of the 20th Century lies in the 6th decimal place", which was said just before the dawn of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. There are other numerous examples of such arrogance in all of science which has stifled innovation.

All in all, being "clever by letters before and after one's name" or standing on the shoulders of giants is often not a true guide on ability, much as IQ results can be too specific of one type of skill. One must remember too, that academics may be a cultured middle class but just as prone to envy and mediocrity as any other social class - of any large institution, only a small fraction are really innovative whilst most of their colleagues are journeymen.

In the military

Some observers have suggested that the need to keep designers and bureaucrats in work plays an important part in decisions that prefer in-country work.

The Teal Group says that "techno-nationalism" prevents further consolidation of rotorcraft manufacturers between the United States and the European Union.

In popular culture

In late 2009, Bill Barnes (of Unshelved) and Paul Southworth (of Ugly Hill and You Are Dead) launched a webcomic titled "Not Invented Here" which parodies mistakes made in the software development industry such as overly-optimistic schedules, improper specifications, interferences from marketing (and other outside sources or departments) and many others. It is drawn from the experiences of Barnes, who worked in software development for two decades.

The Culture novel Excession by Iain M. Banks features a ship called Not Invented Here.

IHBLRIA

IHBLRIA is a term which is closely-matched with NIH, and stands for "Invented Here, But Let's Reinvent It Anyway"; it is the mindset that the previous work of the firm or company is sub-par or otherwise unacceptable, and should be recreated, often from scratch, rather than reused.

See also

• Anti-pattern
• Appeal to spite
• Association fallacy
• Editor wars
• Groupthink
• List of cognitive biases
• Protectionism
• Wishful thinking
• YAGNI (You Ain't Gonna Need It)