Hacker News Reader

Comment by bigyabai | Hacker News Reader

"Picasso had a saying -- 'good artists copy; great artists steal' -- and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."

- Steve Jobs

View on HN

Great artists steal ideas, not a painting off a gallery wall.

a "metal-finishing technique" _is_ an idea.

joke

When you are bulk copying data off your former employer's network share, that is a lot more than "stealing ideas".

The concept of applying some kind of Apple-ish texture finish to metal is an idea. A research-heavy, highly specific, finely tuned, multiple step, trade secret, brand signature metal finishing technique is a painting.

Having a certain type of finish on the metal is an idea. Tricking someone into using Apple’s exact trade-secret finishing technique is copying. Making a new, even better technique, that’s so good the general public forgets about Apple and thinks you’re the new benchmark… that’s the kind of stealing that quote is talking about.

Kinda seems like OpenAI didn’t actually have that idea or the ability to execute it, if they had to go to apple’s supplier and lie to them to get them do it.

Yes, and if you analyze the finished metal and put in the work to reverse engineer it, fine, have at it. That's not even theft. If Apple really wanted to keep it completely secret forever, they can't sell it, so thats the risk they accept.

But thats very different than scheming to steal actual property, which these files are.

Well their whole model is a stolen art collection :)

Why not both? Three cheers for escape artists!

> Through Apollinaire, Picasso contacted the poet’s ex-secretary, Honore-Joseph Géry Pieret, who was ready to steal artifacts for a reasonable price. In 1907, Pieret broke into the Louvre and took several sculptures with him. Months later, Picasso would reveal his ground-breaking Cubist work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon which was heavily inspired by Iberian and African sculpture.

https://www.thecollector.com/famous-artists-turned-crime/

Funny thing, Steve Jobs is the only source that attributes this quote to Picasso, and it seems very likely he made it up.

The idea behind the quote most likely came from T.S. Eliot: Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

When an artist "steals" there are two paintings on the wall, I don't think the business secrets work that way.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com