The Timeline of Influence

This is a graph purely made up by me, anecdotally, with zero scientific rigor.

It depicts the amount of effort required to make something cool, based on the age of your influences.

Basically, I think it’s cooler and easier to rip off old stuff. “Steal like an Artist,” yes, but from illuminated manuscript marginalia, neolithic pottery, old Irish ogham, hoop-skirt structures, Egyptian cavetto cornices. Or, better yet, be like Gaudi and copy nature.

It is much harder to make something simultaneously trendy and cool. This may seem like a contradictory statement, but if you’re following a trend, it’s already tired.

And nostalgia is a quick high for a brand, but it actually has very little substance.

If you can make stuff at the cutting edge, great, but it’s crazy hard to surf that wave.