The Art Of Copying

Your elementary school teacher had it wrong. You should copy. And copy a lot.

I would argue that you should kick off any creative project by copying first. This also applies to learning skills. There is an immense benefit from starting from a copy and iterating your way to something more uniquely yours. It can especially help you overcome the fear of failure that often holds you back from even starting a project.

By starting with something that has already been proven to work, you can build your confidence and gain the momentum you need to tackle more challenging projects down the line. Here are all the reasons you should start copying more today.

It Helps You Learn the Fundamentals

For some skills, we have this framework where we expect to suck at it, then we copy someone who is good, then we learn what works and what doesn’t, and we slowly get better at it.

But not all skills are like this. Writing, public speaking, art, music, etc. can all be things where we have an unnecessary expectation to be great early. The reality is, that you only get good at these things just like everything else: copy others who are already good at them. By studying the good work you will begin to see patterns and techniques, of which you can begin to understand the fundamentals of what makes great work great.

For example, if you're copying a piece of music, you may notice that the composer uses a certain chord progression or melody that you've never used before. By studying this technique, you can begin to incorporate it into your work and develop your unique sound.

It Helps You Develop Your Unique Perspective

I’ve heard David Perell talk about as you are copying you should pay attention to what you naturally resist. This is your unique perspective peaking through. Observe it and adjust accordingly to find your voice.

Back to the music example. You may find that you don't like a certain chord or that you wish the chorus was a bit faster. This can be the starting point for developing your unique perspective and creating expertise in an area or skill set.

Learning What It Takes To Be Great At Something Is A Skill

There is also a meta-skill that can be learned from copying: learning how to be great.

What gets you from beginner to competent is different than what gets you from competent to excellent. By copying the work of those who achieved excellence gives you a peak behind the curtain. You see what the output could look like so you can reverse engineer what it takes to get there.

The last thing I’ll say on this topic is less tangible than the others but could be a critical wild card. Copying work is a lot [link to “light work” post] easier and more obvious in scope vs. creating a task for yourself that is something like “get good at X”. One feels far less stressful than the other. If there is one thing I’ve learned about executing projects: I will be much more likely to work on a project or topic where the tasks are clear.

Copying the work of artists and practitioners that I find interesting is about as clear as it gets.