None of us likes to admit it but we all copy, copy, copy. Not in that scary way that Juliet X did in the movie Single White Female; nor, in that way that schoolkids do when they copy each other's' homework. But just in everyday life: we do it, even without thinking.
Mark Earls
Learning how important it is to us might just help us sleep a little easier and solve problems a whole lot quicker:
1. Copying is only natural.
Monkey See, Monkey Do. Wrong! It's Human See, Human Do. Scientists have managed to observe human infants as young as 42 minutes old copying the faces human adults make at them. Chimps and monkeys can do, but they do it later, do less well and need encouragement to keep on doing it. If you've got kids, you'll know how true this is: they copy you, their peers and anything they see around them. It's our number 1 learning strategy.
2. Copying works
There is a famous scene in the movie When Harry Met Sally, when Meg Ryan (Sally) proves a point to Billy Crystal by noisily faking an orgasm in front of all of the staff and guests at Katz's Deli. "I'll have what she's having" says the lady at the next table - she's a copycat, too. When we're faced with lots of pretty good choices that are hard to tell apart (as in a Deli), choosing what other people are choosing is a good way to finalise your dinner. Of course, there are some things (like financial investments) which you shouldn't just copy other people (that's why the great American investor, Warren Buffet, organises his decisions to exclude what other people think. He admits now he got caught up in the Tesco buzz, when he shouldn't have.)
3. Copying is efficient
Human brains are pretty lazy. As one famous psychologist puts it, humans are to thinking as cats are to swimming. We can do it if we really have to but it is extremely energy thirsty on the "little grey cells". Far easier to use a short hand like "what I did last time" or "what everyone else is doing'. Most of the time, for most decisions, copying is a pretty good choice. That's why e-commerce sites are full of customer reviews and recommendations.
4. Copying means you're never alone
If you have to think everything through on your own, it would take forever and you still might make a bad choice. The great thing about being human is that our ability to copy means we need never be alone: we always have access to other people's experiences and knowledge. You might call it "outsourcing the Cognitive Load" - whether it's seeking information about where to go on holiday, how to deal with a problem with your teenagers or how to solve a particular business problem (who hasn't read one of those 7 Habits of Successful people books?).
5. Good copying is great for solving really tricky problems
When paediatric cardiac surgeon Professor Martin Elliott and his team at Great Ormond Street Hospital were looking to solve the problems they had encountered at the end of their lengthy and intense operations, they copied. But they didn't just copy other doctors' practices; because they defined the problem so clearly, they were able to see further afield and copy from F1 pitstop teams who have learned how to do similarly complicated and life-critical handovers.
6. Copying is what you make of it
You can just copy what others are doing but you can also use copying to create new stuff. Elvis didn't deliberately invent rock n roll, he copied a bunch of music and styles and created something new from them. In fact, in his first session at Sun Studios, it was in mucking about with the scratch backing band, playing the old Standard "That's all right, mama" that he and the guys accidentally created the rockabilly sound he later made famous. He was always a covers artist - never writing his own songs but even copying the stage-craft of those he admired. The Hound Dog routine that shocked 1950s America was actually stolen (not just copied) from a local band that Elvis admired - Freddie Bell and the Bellboys.
7. How you copy tells the world how smart you are
Shakespeare copied all but one of the 30 something plots of his plays, but no-one calls him a copycat! Picasso went further saying that while talent copies, genius (i.e. himself) s teals. And TS Eliot acknowledged that all poets and artists copy, it's how you use the stuff you copy and how far away you copy from that reveals how good you really are. How far away can you copy from? Copying from close is easy.
8. Copying error is where the juice lies
Human beings are brilliant copiers but they make errors, too. And this is where novelty often lies. Smartphone manufacturers now have teams of people across SE Asia looking at copycats of their products: not, as you might think, to enforce their Intellectual Property rights, but rather to find out what the new and different variations of the original product looks like. For example, in China, copycat iPhones and Samsungs have 2 or 3 sim card slots because the phone networks have such poor coverage. If e.g. Apple really wanted to win in China, they'd want to build in more of these to serve local needs better.
9. Copying is free
Justin Smith is one of the great milliners - hat makers - of today. You won't know his name yet but you will have seen his hats: the extraordinary horn headdress that Angelina Jolie wore in Disney's Maleficent was one of his; ditto Amal's amazing wide-brimmed floppy hat. Where does he get his ideas from? Is it all in his head? Does he have a muse? No, he's constantly scanning the world for ideas and things that he might be inspired by. Use your smartphone's camera, your notebook and post-it notes to collect things you see that you think might be useful or interesting one day, even if you don't know quite how or when. The important thing is it's all out there. And it's all free. Turner Prize winning potter Grayson Perry explored a similar idea in his Reith lectures in 2014: "originality" he said, "is for people with short memories". Why make yourself have to have an original.
10. Copying - everyone else is doing it.
If it's good enough for Shakespeare, Picasso, Elvis, Martin Elliott and his team at GOSH and the British Cycling team, why aren't you?
Mark Earls is the author of new book, Copy, Copy, Copy: How to do smarter marketing by using other people's ideas. It is due to published by Wiley in April 2015.