When you know nothing copy. Artist have been copying each other for centuries. The Roman's copied the Greeks, the French copied the Romans, etc. I think whe

When you know nothing copy. Artist have been copying each other for centuries. The Roman's copied the Greeks, the French copied the Romans, etc. I think when you start out you have no choice but to copy. As you get better you can start to do things differently adding your own to it. Eventually you are the one innovating. Remember copying alone never pays off, but it's a great way to learn quickly when you know nothing. Microsoft was the best at this back in the day. First version was always a copy of what existed out there. After that they got feedback and iterated on that design surpassing the incumbents. Eating your own dog food helps in this process. They did this over and over with lots of success. As noted in these posts, copying you copy success and failure. It's your job to sort which is which for your customers/community. You have to know the point when copying won't help you, and innovation should take over.