top | item 8046790

(no title)

rschmitty | 11 years ago

Steve jobs (who stole it from Picasso, who took it from ?) said "Picasso had a saying -- 'good artists copy; great artists steal' -- and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."

This was later "clarified" by Bud Tribble: "If you take something and make it your own ... it's your design and that is the dividing line between copying and stealing."

My history teacher in high school had a simple challenge to get an A for the entire year, skipping all tests and quizzes, and free pass to sleep during class: "Give me a 100% unique idea"

Obviously everyone tried and everyone failed. There are no unique ideas, only innovations upon existing and past work of others.

So I find it odd anyone would downvote you for the truth!

discuss

order

mtdewcmu|11 years ago

>> Steve jobs (who stole it from Picasso, who took it from ?) said "Picasso had a saying -- 'good artists copy; great artists steal' -- and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."

That's faintly ironic -- he had too much shame to steal the quote from Picasso. Perhaps he meant that his company employed shameless great artists, not that he was one himself. Steve Jobs has always struck me as a businessman, primarily (which is probably what you want in a CEO, if you owned, say, Apple stock -- not a thief).