Nothing is Original
How All Great Ideas are Stolen
Why great artists steal, and why great scientists stand on the shoulders of giants
From Pablo Picasso to Bob Dylan, all great artists drew inspirations from works and ideas before them. And they were not shy to admit that!
“Good artists copy, great artists steal“— Pablo Picasso
This phenomenan is not limited to Artists, it’s the same with Scientists. From Isaac Newton to Stephen Hawking, many have admitted to “standing on the shoulders of giants”.
Are they all merely attempting to be humble? Or is there something deeper here? Great creatives seemingly understood that their greatest ideas are a result of drawing inspiration from existing ideas.
The maker of the fascinating documentary series “Everything is a Remix”, Kirby Ferguson, in his Ted talk claims that Copy, Transform and Combine are the basic elements of all creativity. I think he is onto something here.
To really understand how this works, let’s get back to the basic idea that founded the civilization itself. Let’s think of control of Fire.
We can reasonably speculate that hundreds of thousands of years ago, our ancestors were inspired by sparks created while making flint weapons and fires caused by lightning strikes to come up with the idea of controlled Fire.
Much later, around 3500 B.C.E., the Mesopotamians invented the wheel, for pottery-making, not for transportation! Few centuries later, someone drew inspiration from these wheels and horseback riding to create chariots!
Furthermore, the legend tells that square tiles layout of Samos’ palace led to the inspiration that led to Pythagoras Theorem. And a dip in a bathtub was the inspiration behind the Archimedes Principle.
Today, we call this “Analogous Inspiration” and it is one of the best methods in the arsenal of a designer to come up with great ideas. You just have to find ways to Copy, Transform and Combine.
For instance, Surgeons are finding ways to improve Handovers from Surgery to Intensive Care by drawing analogous inspiration from formula one pit stops.
We will further explore contemporary Analogous Inspiration in the next article.