So few things in this world are truly original.

So many things in this world are truly unique.

We live in a world so full of ideas that it is very difficult to find an idea that isn’t a variation of a tune that’s been played before, that doesn’t build on foundations that haven’t been laid down by another.

It’s basically impossible. You have to draw from somewhere, whether it’s the people around you, the art you consume, or reality itself. Everything you experience depends on context, on the interactions withe world around you.

You can be influenced by anything, whether it be the half eaten donut on the coffee table, the apple on the tree, or the fragment of conversation you heard on the bus.

But what you make from those influences … that is truly unique. It is how we combine ideas, we filter them through ourselves, and produce something that nobody else could. Not because there is nobody better or more creative or more original than you, but because you are unique and therefore what you produce will be unique.

Of course, I could be wrong about this. This is just how I think about the entire creative endeavour. I suppose that’s part of what makes me unique.