Maybe this is relevant: Beside my day-job I spend a lot of time making music. When some artist or label wants me to remix something, I'll always avoid listening

Maybe this is relevant: Beside my day-job I spend a lot of time making music. When some artist or label wants me to remix something, I'll always avoid listening to the original work - I'd just receive the samples and midi data, even better if the filenames won't give anything (like the song structure) away, and start working on my interpretation of those loose pieces that would later develope into my idea of which parts should be key, emphasized or not considered at all, which may differ a lot from what the original artist had in mind. At least when it comes to audio production and being asked to alter or re-invent the work of someone else, the results will benefit if you don't have a very clear reference point but just a bunch loose jigsaw pieces, that don't have any right or wrong combination attached. I thought this approach might be relevant to the topic as it seems like an extension of the idea the article describes: If you try to make something different, it's helpful not to know how it's done "right".