
Good Artists Copy; Great Artists Steal - fortran77
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/
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asveikau
I feel like this quote gets misused a bit by software people as a post hoc
justification for selfish behaviors. The takeaway becomes that it is OK to
steal, or to present "stolen" or communally developed ideas as emanating from
one person's ego.

There is another reading possible that promotes humility. The notion that you
didn't get there by yourself. That you took good ideas from other sources. We
should be free, open, and quick to admit it.

~~~
birdyrooster
I very much agree with you! It is a bit of a backhanded compliment, but is
ultimately ingratiating our predecessors.

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mikehall314
I'm reminded of the version of this quote which appeared in the TV movie
"Pirates of Silicon Valley", which features this exchange...

Gates: Good artists copy, great artists steal. Ballmer: Oh yeah, who said
that? Gates: _shrug_ Some artist.

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mceachen
TL;DR:

1\. It isn't a Picasso quote

2\. The source of the quote, T.S. Eliot's _The Sacred Wood_, literally
suggests the opposite intent: "...bad poets deface what they take, and good
poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good
poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly
different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into
something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors
remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest..."

~~~
rebuilder
Eliot seems to be saying good poets steal content not from the original
author, but from the original context. Bad poets would be unable to transform
the things they imitate.

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pell
I always appreciated this one.

To copy an idea, you try to replicate it, to steal an idea, you have to make
it your own.

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throwawaysea
I wonder why the exact words from Adams and Eliot were modified over time by
others. Was it malicious (to serve a narrative) or was it an updated
reinterpretation, given that English is brittle and the meanings and
connotations of words change over time, demanding such revisions for
precision.

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dang
I think it's usually because memory is faulty and rewrites things, often into
a form that's easier to remember. Basically the quotes get polished into
proverbs over the years. And of course the attributions get overwritten with
catchier ones as well (Davenport -> Picasso).

~~~
pochamago
Polishing seems like a big factor to me. The modern version is much snappier
than "immature poets imitate; mature poets plagiarize"

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Thorentis
As a meta comment, I am enjoying the QI posts appearing on HN occasionally.
Don't think I used to see them a lot, though maybe I wasn't paying attention.

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hakmad
This reminds me of a quote from Margin Call: "There's only three ways to
succeed in this business: be first, be smart, or cheat." It's not entirely
relevant (the context here is art, and given that it's on HN it could also be
applied to programming too) but the essence is the same.

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P_I_Staker
"Just don't steal my stuff"

\- Everybody that uses this quote

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hootbootscoot
... and even better artists invent/create/channel new ideas.

Why is that possibility completely ignored?

I suspect that it's related to the promotion of mediocrity.

