Imitate, then Innovate – David Perell

Imitate, then Innovate – a mantra that David Perell swears by. Unravel the essence of this philosophy, its profound impact on learning, and how it can be a game-changer in your personal and professional growth journey.

Imitate, then Innovate

The more we imitate others, the faster we can discover our unique style

• Originality is the highest virtue, even if it comes at the expense of quality
• In general, creators spend much less time imitating their heroes and more time trying to make something new

Writing guide

Four-step process for crafting high-quality writing even when you’re totally slammed

Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino’s originality begins with imitation

• He’s famous for replicating and building upon scenes from other movies, and he once said: “I steal from every single movie ever made.”
• In fact, imitation and innovation are not opposed
• Creators consume art differently than consumers
• They’re far more intentional in what they consume

The Two Kinds of Imitation

Near Imitation: When you imitate people who do similar work to you

• Far Imitations: Transferring ideas from one domain to another
• Much of the future originates in art before it becomes our reality
• Imitation doesn’t mean you should become just like everybody (or even somebody) else
• When people conflate copying for imitation, we end up with a homogeneity of style that robs society of dynamic individualism

Originality Disease

Three reasons why: misunderstanding inspiration, fetishizing originality, and self-obsession.

• Misunderstanding inspiration
• Focusing on originality and usefulness are not the same thing: originality can cause you to forget to make useful contributions to human knowledge, and vice-versa
• Influenced by Freud, we’ve turned originality into our cardinal virtue and turned it into our guiding light, turning it into a pursuit towards truth.

How to Pursue Originality

Originality is only useful insofar as it serves a higher end

• In business, a lack of originality hints that you don’t understand the problem you’re trying to solve well enough
• Writing is the same way
• The surest sign of an amateur writer is somebody who values originality as their ultimate goal
• Better to imitate, then innovate instead

What Happened to Imitation?

Throughout human history, most imitative learning happened through apprenticeships.

• Today, things have changed as we’ve dropped apprenticeships in the name of efficiency. Instead of doing an apprenticeship, wannabe Da Vincis are training at professional art schools.
• The decline of apprenticeships came the decline of Imitative learning because the printing press and mass schooling led us to disproportionately value knowledge that could be codified in textbooks.
• The transmission of technique and tacit knowledge was lost in translation.

Lessons from Painting

Imitation helps us discover our creative personalities

• It reveals our taste and which parts of the creative process come most naturally to us
• To write and to paint is to learn how to see
• Writing and painting have similar essential properties that manifest themselves in wildly different ways

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