When Einstein said “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources’ – he did not mean.. “Copy others work” what I think he actually meant is “Make it better and visible”

Copying, for educational purposes(and not commercial) is ‘Inspiration’ … or maybe to make it a little more euphemistic, ‘heavily inspired’.

Actually, it depends a lot on how one interprets it. I believe “copying” is certainly legit, provided you don’t take all the credits and claim the work as your own….

However, from my perspective, what Einstein tried to tell is that, ‘a great person isn’t someone who has no sources or who derives everything himself but he’s one who makes the sources unimportant’. It was definitely true in the case of Einstein and his works… he performed no experiments nor invented new kinds of math. But he didn’t need to credit the others because he took those existing ideas and used them in a way nobody had before.

But that’s not creativity, is it? That’s just being.. you know,… great!

“Creativity is the ability to generate innovative ideas and manifest them from thought into reality. The process involves original thinking and then producing” – wikipedia

However, copying is vital in becoming a successful artist, of course when used in the right context.

Imho, There is nothing in this world that is original. Everything has been inspired by something and that’s the beauty in it

Just my 2 cents

Great read, btw!