In this brief video, Austin Kleon tells how he learned that the art he “discovered” was in fact a variation of another artists work from more than 200 years ago.

He came to appreciate that there is no such thing as an original idea; and how we can make the greatest contributions in our work is to “steal like an artist” – figure out what are the very best ideas, and mold them into something better.

If you think about it, that’s all that’s ever been done… with art, manufacturing, technology: taking what’s out there, mashing it up , and coming up with something better.

Rather than asking what good ideas have you had, perhaps better to ask what good ideas have you stolen…