Copying is underrated

jasonleow • 27 Jan 2022 •
Tweet

Screenshot

Copying is frowned upon and a matter of principle and pride for creators and creative folks.

The worst is direct plagiarism. Word for word, pixel for pixel, or line by line of code.

Don’t do that. But otherwise, copying is fine. Because:

Copying is the fastest way of creating.
Copying is the best way to discover your own take.
Copying is the most intuitive way to learn anything at all.

Children are the best copiers. They emulate without shame. They have no baggage with copying. Say a curse word unwittingly in front of them, and watch them parrot that same word immediately.

This is most famously summed up by Picasso:

“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”

Most would explain that as copying elements of one thing, and adapting it into your own product or art.

But sometimes you can even be 99% identical and still win.

I think of the ten different brands selling the same ketchup in the supermarket—albeit with packaging—and I think near-identical copying is fine. You don’t have to be unique to win, or at least have a slice of the pie.

Twitter and Telegram copied Clubhouse.
Facebook and Instagram copied Snapchat.

Businesses build on one another’s ideas all the time. Most of modern progress come from copying, and then adding your own tiny layer on top. Over time, upon layers and layers, we all rise.

Everything is a remix, after all.

Copying is underrated.

Copy more, create more.

There are NO rules.

Comments

Sergio talked about this recently: https://matteing.com/startup-ideas/

Also reminds me of a phrase from Battlestar Galactica, on the concept of eternal recurrence: “All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.”

Sometimes I get first-time founders asking me, “What if someone copies my idea?”
To which I’ll say, “What makes you think your idea was original in the first place?”