When you copy from one source, it is called plagiarism.  When you copy from multiple resources, it is called research." Gerald Weinberg [19xx]. 

Do a lot of research.  As technical director for Northern California Ballet I am often given credit for being creative and imaginative.  Our sets and special effects are quite remarkable compared to other productions of comparable size and budget.  But, look past the flash of the stage presentation.  What is it that I really do? I copy extensively and broadly.  I combine a little knowledge of electrical circuits, with a little carpentry, with a bit of research into pyro-techniques, and with some knowledge of how magicians do their tricks.  Finally I decorate it with a copy of an artistic design from some where else, put a performer on stage within the context of some story.  The result, we entertain the audience with a surprise effect. and I am thought to be a highly creative person.

In order to combine a little of this with a little of that I have to study broadly and widely.  I don't know ahead of time what I don't know.  The most important thing I don't know is what combination will result in something useful. 

As you study what other creative persons have done and then copy them extensively and broadly you will begin to recognize that this is exactly what those creative people you are studying did ••• and so can you! But then, just as you believe the mystery of creativity is nothing more than extensive copying and recombining a miracle occurs.  You find somebody who did something truly original, something that was not copied from anywhere.  Obviously this must happen once in awhile.  

Later in the theoretical section I will show that a creative event is about 100,000 times more likely due to recombination than the truly original idea.  The ratio is not very exact because it depends on the how we divide things into their component parts.

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