Would you choose a prefabricated house or something you designed yourself? Take pride in what you build. There isn't a correct answer, it's situational. Sometimes you need shelter quickly. Sometimes you want to see your vision turned into reality. Generally when you are first starting out, working with what's readily available makes perfect sense. Why would you put a lot of time and effort into building something when you don't know what you want? But as you grow in knowledge, you start to develop insight and preferences. You see what materials you like, you know how a certain layout would be not only beautiful but highly functional and you know the neighbourhood where it would fit in perfectly. I think something similar applies with investment analysis. When you start out, you work with ratios and statistics that were built by someone else. The cost is low and they do the job, hopefully. But as you work at it and are exposed to new ideas you