Episode 065: Is It Creative to Copy Others?

by | Oct 25, 2021 | Podcast, Systematic Growth | 0 comments

The title of this episode reveals the question on many of our minds: is it creative to copy someone else’s idea?

At first glance, that wouldn’t seem very creative. If you were to take someone’s idea and claim it as your own, few would label that “creativity.”

However, there is some merit to the idea of copying. There’s a very good and compelling reason for using a degree of copying as a way to boost your creative output.

That’s what we’re covering in this episode. In it, I explain why we should sometimes copy others’ ideas to increase our own innovative abilities.

In this episode you’ll hear:

  1. How architects borrow other architects’ designs and styles.
  2. How copying can be a way to master fundamental, foundational ideas.
  3. Why copying is really just transferring the style of one creative person to your own.
  4. How to transfer a creative idea into another genre.
  5. What analog transference is.
  6. The difference between innovation and discovery.
  7. Why every new idea has an old idea in it.

Resources from this episode:

Stewart Hicks’ YouTube channel

Downloadable scorecard to rate your idea