Everything Is a Remix (and I'm a Remixer Too)

“Creation requires influence.” That’s a line I found in a YouTube documentary called Everything is a remix. If creation requires influence, influence starts with copying. As a kid, I learned to write by copying from textbooks and whiteboards. Then in college, I learned to code by copying code blocks from textbooks and whiteboards too. When I decided to take writing seriously, I learned by copying and dissecting some of my favorite writers, like Seth Godin and James Altucher. When I read about James Altucher’s bankruptcy stories, Choose Yourself, and his storytelling, I said “I want to write like that.” He’s probably the non-fiction writer I’ve read and copied the most. And by extension, I’ve copied the ones he copied too. Nobody starts out original. For almost all my books, I can point to someone and something else where I stole ideas from. By “stole,” I mean inspiration. Creativity is also copying, transforming, and combining.

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