“Art is theft.” –Pablo Picasso
In my breakdown of where new ideas come from, we explored how “new” ideas aren’t entirely new. They’re either amended versions of old ideas or combinations of preexisting ideas. (And again, if you’ve got a counterexample, I’d love to hear about it.)
I also suggested a few ways you can enhance your creativity based on this understanding:
- Learn both deeply and broadly.
- Try applying solutions from other domains to the problems you’re working on.
- Collaborate with others.
Well, there’s another way to unlock more creativity: stealing other people’s ideas.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting you blatantly copy other people’s work and claim it as your own. And I’m not saying it’s okay to engage in cultural appropriation.
But I am saying that it’s okay to draw upon the work of others. It’s okay to be influenced by their style. It’s okay to improve upon their ideas. It’s okay to combine their ideas with your own in order to make something new.
In Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
, Austin Kleon puts it this way:
“What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.”1
And this applies to much more than art. Creative thievery is an essential part of every innovator’s toolkit, whether they like to admit it or not.
But of course, there’s a right way to steal and a wrong way to steal.
Creative Thievery Done Right
“I get advice from musicians, I get advice from thieves.
Sometimes it’s totally different, sometimes it’s the same thing.
Steal a lot from one person and they call the cops.
Steal a little from everyone and you rise to the top.”
–John Craigie, “Hustlin’”
This verse from John Craigie really hits the nail on the head. A good artist draws upon many influences. If a painter only borrowed ideas from Salvador Dali, their paintings would look too much like Dali’s, and everyone would know they stole his ideas, and the work wouldn’t be seen as creative. But if a painter borrowed styles from Picasso and Escher and Pollock and Warhol and Dali, then their work would be celebrated as original.
So the right way to steal is to take a little inspiration from many sources. You should also be humble and respectful, and you should give credit to the people who inspired you.
Speaking of which, I’d like to take this moment to thank Robert Wright, Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Johnson, Yuval Noah Harari, James Clear, and Bill Bryson, whose ideas and writing-styles have influenced my work enormously over the years. I’d also like to thank Brian Johnson, the conduit through which many other author’s ideas have come my way.
Who are you, really?
Speaking of Brian Johnson, he likes to say that “the ultimate creative project is our lives,” and I happen to agree. So of course creative thievery applies to our personal development.
“Nobody is born with a style or voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying. We’re talking about practice here, not plagiarism—plagiarism is trying to pass someone else’s work off as your own. Copying is about reverse-engineering. It’s like a mechanic taking apart a car to see how it works. We learn to write by copying down the alphabet. Musicians learn to play by practicing scales. Painters learn to paint by reproducing masterpieces. Remember: Even the Beatles started as a cover band.” –Austin Kleon1
Kleon here is suggesting that creative thievery is actually how we become ourselves. We are constantly absorbing the inputs from the world, integrating them into our perspective, and altering our personality along the way.
You are, of course, a product of your genes and your choices, but you are also an amalgamation of outside influences. We all are. And that’s nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it’s something to be embraced and celebrated.
So go ahead, and steal like an artist.
1 Kleon, Austin. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative. Workman Publishing Company, 2012.