You know the phrase, “picking someone’s brain”. It means reaping someone else’s thoughts and ideas for leads, topics or subjects which you might decide to put to future use.
It’s all very well to brainstorm, exchange ideas, or debate a subject, as long as you acknowledge the originator or owner of the idea. For this post, I must thank the reader who gave me a suggestion in a comment on how to do ‘easy work’ by using posts by other writers and tailoring them to seem like your own. Frankly, I don’t agree or intend to take such advice seriously, as I must say my original work gives me satisfaction and I don’t like ‘ape-ing’ others or being too lazy to think for myself.
Knowing the masterpiece you are praised for is a mere forgery, makes the ‘victory’ second-hand and cheap. You just find yourself feeling like a cheating, cheap skate charlatan. However, there are a number of people who have been ‘caught’ claiming certain ideas picked from various sources as their own original brain waves. Ironically, the very source of brilliant inspiration is sometimes the same one judging their performance, who actually recognizes his/her own work. Whatever their response to this cool pilfering is, they will always be the original sources with the capability to expand, alter, change or further re-create their thoughts. These are the true master thinkers, the ones who really understand what they are doing and dealing with.
In the world out there, some famous artists, writers, and intellectuals face allegations of plagiarism and intellectual property theft. Even Shakespeare couldn’t avoid being accused of ‘borrowing’ someone else’s ideas which he masterfully turned into timeless plays. He became a Master of classical English, although the originality of his story plots are seen as doubtful.
The degree to which this ‘borrowing’ and adapting is taken may make or break the Borrower. Yet, honestly , would you be proud of someone else’s work, and not your own? It affects your self-esteem. Think about it before becoming a ruthless brain picker. Such intellectual thuggery can have legal consequences in the worst cases.
Winking at Life 