Writers copying works of others to learn

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The practice of observing and copying from masters' works was a fundamental part of education for artists in the past, helping in building fundamental skills like drawing and perceiving. This approach, though often dismissed in modern times, led to the production of many excellent painters. Having a technical foundation through copying others can significantly aid individuals in expressing their creativity effectively, evident not only in art but also in writing, as famous writers like Jack London started by hand writing and copying the works of others to learn and improve their craft.

Life revolves around learning—in school, at our jobs, even in the things we do for fun. But we often don’t progress in any of these areas at the rate we’d like. Consequently, and unfortunately, we often give up our pursuits prematurely or resign ourselves to always being mediocre in our classes, career, and hobbies.

Scott Young has some tips on how you can avoid this fate, level up in whatever you do, and enjoy the satisfaction of skill improvement. Scott is a writer, programmer, and entrepreneur, and the author of Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery. Today on the show, Scott shares the three key factors in helping us learn. He explains how copying others is an underrated technique in becoming a genius, why, contrary to the sentiments of motivational memes, we learn more from success than mistakes, why experts often aren’t good teachers and tactics for drawing out their best advice, why you may need to get worse before you get better, and more.