

“Good Artists Copy; Great Artists Steal” (2013) - getdavidhiggins
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/

======
webwielder
I've always interpreted the quote as meaning that good artists are able to
recognize worthy work and imitate it, while great artists take that work and
make it their own, improve upon and personalize it.

The Macintosh team "stole" the GUI from PARC, insomuch as they turned an
academic experiment into a user-friendly, commercially viable product with its
own refined sensibility and personality.

Samsung was a good enough artist to recognize that the iPhone was worth
copying slavishly (albeit poorly), but they never turned their imitation into
a distinct work unto itself.

~~~
Curmudgel
Can you tell the difference between a Samsung Galaxy S5 and and iPhone 5? If
yes, then why isn't the Galaxy series a distinct work with its own sensibility
and personality?

~~~
Swizec
Looking at images on Google ... it just looks like a bigger iPhone with a
slightly smooshed home button. Reminds me a lot of all those cheap knock-off
things you can buy on random markets in places like Bosnia and Serbia (in my
personal experience, I know there's many more out there) where they make it
look off just enough to avoid being sued.

For example, Adibos sneakers: [http://www.funfacts.com.au/images/fake-
counterfeit-adidas-sh...](http://www.funfacts.com.au/images/fake-counterfeit-
adidas-shoes12.jpg)

Not to say Samsung phones are knock-off iPhones, just that you could easily
sell me one as such. Especially if I wasn't a techie. Hell, I'd be surprised
if my mum could tell me I'm wrong if I said Apple released a bigger iPhone and
showed her a Samsung Galaxy.

~~~
sheepmullet
"Hell, I'd be surprised if my mum could tell me I'm wrong if I said Apple
released a bigger iPhone and showed her a Samsung Galaxy."

So? I could show a new Mercedes model to a non-car enthusiast and say it is a
BMW and they couldn't tell the difference.

~~~
Swizec
So practical things look a lot alike? I don't know. But I'm almost certain you
couldn't show a Pollock to a non-painting enthusiast and convince them it was
a Picasso.

------
ChuckMcM
I love their travels through the literature to find out who may of originated
a quote. That the first published instance was 1892 (which Picasso was just
11) suggests that the conceptual quote was already out there.

I've always wondered though how Steve internalized that thought. One less
charitable interpretation was that he felt that 'greater artists' had more
right to a concept than lesser artists because they could do more with it. The
literature has certainly portrayed him as very protective of ideas that he has
championed, without regard to the idea's origin.

~~~
kumarishan
This is certainly a well researched one. And seeing so many versions
throughout the history, does make me think, if some is going to change it
again :).

Well Steve Jobs introduced fonts to computer. Something that he stole from the
hands of specialized calligraphers and enabled everyone to produce great
content.

~~~
Curmudgel
> Well Steve Jobs introduced fonts to computer.

What? First of all, I think that you're confusing typefaces and fonts. A
computer font is computer code that describes how the size and shape,
orientation, etc. of a collection of glyphs should be output onto the screen.
Computers had successfully output text to a screen for decades before the
Macintosh.

The Xerox Star, which came out in 1981, three years before the Apple
Macintosh, had sans-serif and serif typefaces:

[http://www.digibarn.com/collections/screenshots/xerox-
star-8...](http://www.digibarn.com/collections/screenshots/xerox-
star-8010/xerox-star-8010-07.jpg)

The Macintosh might have been the first popular commercially available machine
that offered several computer fonts, but Jobs certainly did not come up with
the idea.

~~~
rjsw
The MIT Lisp Machine source tree contains Times Roman and Helvetica fonts
dating from 1977.

~~~
Curmudgel
I didn't mean to suggest that the Star was the first commercial computer that
offered multiple fonts. I picked the Star because it came before the Macintosh
there were good pictures of it available. I believe that the Alto also had a
font that set a typeface in cursive, and even came with its own font editor,
but I'd have to look harder to find videos or pictures of that.

~~~
rjsw
I think you were correct to identify the Star (or at least the prototype of
it), The article on the history of Smalltalk that was posted yesterday gives a
date of 1972 for the first Xerox PARC font editor.

------
abruzzi
It's interesting how these quote with no clear attribution can take a life of
their own. It's like the quote attributed to Burke that "all that is necessary
for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." You see that quote
referenced everywhere, and it is a great quote, but it doesn't appear in any
of Burke's writings.

------
stephengillie
[http://i.imgur.com/7LipLvS.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/7LipLvS.jpg)

~~~
apu
Where is this from?

~~~
aniro
I am guessing:

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

[http://austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-
artis...](http://austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-
and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/)

------
bdevine
I'm fond of attributing this quote to myself, but I may have the causality
reversed.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
This quote created you?!?

------
UntitledNo4
I always knew the "talent borrows, genius steals" version and it being
attributed to Oscar Wilde. While I couldn't find any concrete evidence online
to him having said that, I still like this version the best.

------
read

      It's not cheating to copy.
    
      - Paul Graham
    

[http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/taste.html)

------
dba7dba
IMHO, it doesn't matter how the quote was created.

What matters is Mr. Jobs said the quote. He said artists both copy and steal.
He did not say 'create'. Can we agree on this?

And following may be common knowledge on HN but let me just bring them up for
the benefit of those who may not know.

1\. Remember the $350 bonus Mr. Jobs did not give to Steve Wozniak, which was
rightfully Wozniak's. This bonus was profit from their very first join
venture, designing board for Atari.

2\. And before there was the Apple Inc. the Computer company, there was Apple
Corps Ltd, of the Beatles fame. The name of 'Apple' in Apple Inc (the computer
maker) was 'copied' without authorization from the Apple Corps Ltd (of the
Beatles). There were multiple litigations between them over the name.

I really hate to bring these up with Mr. Jobs gone but let's not forget these
things happened. He was a great figure no doubt.

