On the Roam FM podcast, Ali Abdaal and the host talked about re-mixing ideas: creativity as re-presenting what others have thought.
I like this idea of re-mixing as a genuine form of creative action. But I admit: something in me wants to call it “lazy.” The “real” way to be creative is to come up with something purely and completely un-influenced by anyone else.
To work on this, I wrote down the question: When is re-presenting not laziness?
I don’t have an answer to that question. But I have something in my notes about what is obviously an act of laziness (and outright theft):
What’s the obvious act of laziness? I take someone’s essay on the internet, I select all the text, I click copy, and then I paste it in a new file, and put my own name on it as the author. I’ve done nothing to add words of my own or ideas from my own thinking. I’m just passing off someone else’s work as my own. I have done no work other than the minimal acts of digital reproduction, most of which is handled by the computer.
That helps me see that adding something of my own to the pre-existing material — even if it’s mere re-arrangement of another author’s acknowledged ideas — is something more than mere copying and lazy re-presentation. It’s a re-presentation that counts as creative.