TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

David Barnard, riffing on T.S. Elliot:

When you steal an idea and have the time and good taste to make it your own, it grows into something different, hopefully something greater. But as you borrow more and more from other products, there’s less and less of you in the result. Less to be proud of, less to own.

Nailed it. “Borrowing” implies quickly tacking on some idea you saw from someone else without really thinking through why it’s that way. When you borrow an idea, you’re just photocopying it.

But there’s no shame in taking other people’s good ideas. They’re good ideas, after all. But rather than tack it on, you should think through why it’s such a good idea, and how it fits with your own design’s intent. By doing so, you find the greater truth behind why they designed it that way, and you can integrate it into your own design appropriately, and even improve on it. That’s taking it and making your own, and there should be absolutely no guilt about doing so.