I find that it is important to not just blindly copy something, but to truly unpack the principles behind it and attempt to improve upon it. This allows you to

I find that it is important to not just blindly copy something, but to truly unpack the principles behind it and attempt to improve upon it. This allows you to be inspired by great work but to (hopefully) take it even further and polish it even more. If you can't change or tweak anything about the original inpiration then it's a good bet you don't fully understand why it works or how, so you aren't going to grow in the process.