Daily Writing #27: Imitate, Then Innovate
When you compete to be the best, you imitate. When you compete to be unique, you innovate.
David Perell • Peter Thiel’s Religion
Work and imitation go together in the process of learning.
Ray Bradbury • Zen in the Art of Writing
Our Mimetic nature is simultaneously our biggest strength and biggest weakness. When it goes right, imitation is a shortcut to learning. But when it spirals out of control, Mimetic imitation leads to envy, violence, and bitter, ever-escalating violence.
David Perell • Peter Thiel’s Religion
Emulating is a form of copying not the letter but the spirit of something.
Amy Whitaker • Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses
Many writers, and teachers of writing, spend so much time comparing work to past masters that they lose the contemporary voice of the novel being created on this day.
Walter Mosley • This Year You Write Your Novel
Rival products (burgers, pop songs, political parties) tend to grow more alike over time, because creators copy more successful rivals to replicate their success and steal their customers/audiences.
Paradoxically, this increases the value of being different.
Paradoxically, this increases the value of being different.