Copying vs. stealing
Another person copies Caitlin.
It hurts me too.
She and I spent days creating a set of core values which drive the copy that she puts on her website. There are many compromises and issues that come with creating your own company, and without a moral compass, it becomes easy to make bad decisions that might not be evident why they are wrong until it is too late.
Believe it or not, those three paragraphs the person copied have all four of her core values in it.
When I was trying to put what was wrong into words, I suggested the quote that she eventually used. I first heard it from a movie:
“Bad artists copy. Great artists steal.”
—Pablo Picasso
It made me think about the meaning behind that quote. What does it mean to “copy”? What does it mean to “steal”? Why are the two often confused?1 Did the moviemakers put much thought into the quote? I know I didn’t until recently.
Why does “stealing” sound so much worse than “copying”? I guess because when you steal, you take the very being of something and own it. But when you copy, you do not. When Picasso said this statement, he meant that in a good way or a humble way. To take something great, to understand it, to make it your own, to create it anew.
Or, to use an oft-“copied” phrase:
“Pigmaei gigantum humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident.” (Dwarves, placed upon the shoulder of giants, see further than the giants themselves.)
—Bernard of Chartres, 12th century philosopher
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:28 am
[...] I like to think that true success takes a little bit of appreciating that we, each of us, do stand on the shoulders of giants. [...]
March 13th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
actually the phrase Pigmaei gigantium humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident comes from newton’s interpretation of the original “nanos gigantium humeris insidentes”
March 14th, 2008 at 11:09 am
@wes Thanks for the correction.