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I think we have an unhealthy obsession with trying to achieve 100% original thoughts and ideas, to the point that people often hide their influences unless they

I think we have an unhealthy obsession with trying to achieve 100% original thoughts and ideas, to the point that people often hide their influences unless they feel people will understand that they didn't borrow too much. Feels like a psychological trap.

bjz_ 6y ago
Yeah, it's not an uncommon to feel this way, especially if you've not learned the humanities formally. Pretty much the first thing I learned in art theory at university was how much art depends on influence and appropriation, and that it's important to accept and embrace this. It was a hard lesson to learn as a young person striving to be original, but it's served me really well. Even as I now move into programming, computer science, and industrial programming language research, I'm still grateful for that small amount of art theory I did at university. You don't need to try to be original - rather it's important to seek wide and varied influences, develop your sense of taste, and from that will flow seemingly unique and varied insights.
- rwnspace 6y ago
  "The key to originality is hiding your sources." Adding on to this, the evolution of modern music, particularly sampling and DJing, is a very visceral example of how originality doesn't just appear in what sources you approach, it can also come from the /way/ you approach them.
- setr 6y ago
  If you take enough sources, any particular combination of them is very likely to be unique -- but anyways uniqueness never mattered; everything interesting in CS was discovered in the 70s. Even cloning & updating a forgotten paper can be of extremely high value. The bigger risk is that by not knowing your sources, you end up repeating the same work from the same start, and end contributing little
pjc50 6y ago
> I think we have an unhealthy obsession with trying to achieve 100% original thoughts and ideas This is pretty much forced on people by the nature of the intellectual property system. If it's ""derivative"" of something written in living memory, you have to pay.
- BolexNOLA 6y ago
  Also every critic (hell, every person with a social media account and too much time on their hands) will endlessly berate you - and you see it too. Critics have also learned that, unless the film/book/game/etc is absolutely breathtaking, bashing and looking for any little thing to pick apart gets more attention. The easiest attack to make is, “this [media] is just a poor man’s [other media].”
  - thewhitetulip 6y ago
    I hear this a lot about the stories I write. This is just like x or y or z. It is not original or unique, or it is just too cliched. I mean, yes, _something_ in the story is going to be repetitive. But the unrealistic expectations people have these days is that it that it should be 100% original. don't write stories about humans, write about aliens, but no, alien vs predator covered that.. it is never ending.
    - BolexNOLA 6y ago
      They’re gonna be mad when they learn that Star Wars is derivative haha
      - thewhitetulip 6y ago
        hahaha. Such people have an elitist attitude of fundamentalists. They think only Oxford dons should write novels. Who are you to write a sci fi book when GRRM is writing one? How dare you? One such person had said to me a long time back that "you'll never write something like this". I was like, "you don't know me and never say never. Just because you lack the ability to write something down doesn't mean the rest of the world does, too."
barrkel 6y ago
Something truly original won't be understood. Novelty must be in small doses.

bjz_ 6y ago

Yeah, it's not an uncommon to feel this way, especially if you've not learned the humanities formally. Pretty much the first thing I learned in art theory at university was how much art depends on influence and appropriation, and that it's important to accept and embrace this. It was a hard lesson to learn as a young person striving to be original, but it's served me really well. Even as I now move into programming, computer science, and industrial programming language research, I'm still grateful for that small amount of art theory I did at university. You don't need to try to be original - rather it's important to seek wide and varied influences, develop your sense of taste, and from that will flow seemingly unique and varied insights.

rwnspace 6y ago
"The key to originality is hiding your sources." Adding on to this, the evolution of modern music, particularly sampling and DJing, is a very visceral example of how originality doesn't just appear in what sources you approach, it can also come from the /way/ you approach them.
setr 6y ago
If you take enough sources, any particular combination of them is very likely to be unique -- but anyways uniqueness never mattered; everything interesting in CS was discovered in the 70s. Even cloning & updating a forgotten paper can be of extremely high value. The bigger risk is that by not knowing your sources, you end up repeating the same work from the same start, and end contributing little

pjc50 6y ago

> I think we have an unhealthy obsession with trying to achieve 100% original thoughts and ideas This is pretty much forced on people by the nature of the intellectual property system. If it's ""derivative"" of something written in living memory, you have to pay.

BolexNOLA 6y ago
Also every critic (hell, every person with a social media account and too much time on their hands) will endlessly berate you - and you see it too. Critics have also learned that, unless the film/book/game/etc is absolutely breathtaking, bashing and looking for any little thing to pick apart gets more attention. The easiest attack to make is, “this [media] is just a poor man’s [other media].”
- thewhitetulip 6y ago
  I hear this a lot about the stories I write. This is just like x or y or z. It is not original or unique, or it is just too cliched. I mean, yes, _something_ in the story is going to be repetitive. But the unrealistic expectations people have these days is that it that it should be 100% original. don't write stories about humans, write about aliens, but no, alien vs predator covered that.. it is never ending.
  - BolexNOLA 6y ago
    They’re gonna be mad when they learn that Star Wars is derivative haha
    - thewhitetulip 6y ago
      hahaha. Such people have an elitist attitude of fundamentalists. They think only Oxford dons should write novels. Who are you to write a sci fi book when GRRM is writing one? How dare you? One such person had said to me a long time back that "you'll never write something like this". I was like, "you don't know me and never say never. Just because you lack the ability to write something down doesn't mean the rest of the world does, too."

barrkel 6y ago

Something truly original won't be understood. Novelty must be in small doses.