Imitate, then Innovate is my motto for improving at any skill.

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It’s counterintuitive, but the more we imitate others, the faster we can discover our unique style.

Modern creators do the opposite though.

They stubbornly insist on originality, which they hold as their highest virtue — even when it comes at the expense of quality.

What does productive imitation look like?

Look at Quentin Tarantino. When people think of him, they see a singular talent for making original movies.

But he's famous for building upon scenes from other movies, and once said: “I steal from every single movie ever made.”

From Tarantino, we learn that creators consume art differently from consumers.

Directors watch movies not just to be entertained, but also to see how they’re made.

Watching helps them develop their own mental Pinterest board of ideas to borrow and build upon in their own work.

George Lucas is another productive imitator.

To create Star Wars, he built upon the teachings of Joseph Cambell. In order to align the story with motifs that’d reverberated through so many human cultures, Lucas re-wrote his draft of Star Wars to align it with Cambell’s work.