Chase Jarvis posted this excerpt:

“The reality is that it’s easier to be inspired than it is to create an original idea and we are hardwired to take the path of least resistance. It’s easier to jump onto a design inspiration gallery site than it is to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. It’s easier to follow a pattern than it is to test-drive new options. It’s easier to copy a style or idea that works than try something that might miss the mark or outright fail. Above all, it’s cheaper mentally for us to rally around what’s already been done and emulate it…”

Read the whole post here, at Viget.com – don’t forget the comments.

I loved this comment from Rob Gilgan:

My own experience has been those with a traditional arts background tend to lack originality and produce largely derivative work. I have colleagues who are short on education and long on space and form conception – they produce, by and large, stunning work without a debt to other artists.

I always impart the anecdote from a show I produced, where a local art educator and ‘expert’ couldn’t determine if he liked a piece until he found out where the artist had trained.

Now – I’m not ripping the value of education – I just think that we use it as to much of a crutch. It is somehow easier to read a book, take a class, read a blog rather than go out and shot, draw, build. I know I fall into that trap.  It makes us feel like we’re improving our selves, but at the end of the day, we haven’t produced anything. That is the true test.