Copying is the best way we know for learning new stuff.
That’s how we learn when we’re children, ironically. Then we go through the school system where copying is demonized. And by the time we’re adults we look at copying as the worst thing ever.
That’s so incredibly stupid.
If you look at the greatest artists of all time – you look at Picasso, you look at Da Vinci – they learned by copying.
And that is how they teach artists too. They duplicate what another artist was able to do with their style. And only then do they mix it and make it their own.
You replicate before you iterate.
You imitate before you innovate.
You copy it before you make it your own.
And the way that you make it your own is that you copy 3, 4, 5 different people’s stuff and then – when you combine the learnings from those – you’ll have something that’s unique and your own.
That’s how you learn in arts.
That’s how you learn in business.
And that’s how you learn in life.