Danny Meyer views innovation as accessing a "file cabinet" of stored experiences—tastes and memories—and combining them in a fresh way. Like a musician using the same eight notes to create a new song, entrepreneurs can create novel offerings by merging existing, proven concepts.

If you only study creators in your own industry, your content will inevitably become derivative. Draw inspiration from diverse sources like books, newspapers, or creators in unrelated fields to develop a more authentic and unique style that stands out.

Thriving civilizations first become masters of imitation, openly absorbing ideas and technologies from other cultures through trade and migration. This diverse pool of borrowed 'ingredients' becomes the foundation for true innovation, which is the novel combination of existing concepts.

The critique that LLMs lack true creativity because they only recombine and predict existing data is challenged by the observation that human creativity, particularly in branding and marketing, often operates on the exact same principles. The process involves combining existing concepts in novel ways to feel fresh, much like an LLM.

Jesse Cole's success stems from "parallel thinking"—the ability to identify a core strategy in an unrelated industry (e.g., Grateful Dead's fan engagement) and apply its principles to his own business. This allows him to import proven models from outside his industry's echo chamber, leading to breakthrough ideas.

Breakthrough creativity, like that behind Disney's *Frozen* or behavioral economics, is often "innovation brokerage." It doesn't come from a blank slate but from combining established concepts from disparate fields—like mixing psychology with economics—to create something new and powerful.

Instead of imitating successful competitors' tactics, deconstruct them to understand the underlying psychological principle (e.g., scarcity, social proof). This allows for authentic adaptation to your specific context, avoiding the high risk of failure from blind copying which ignores differences in brand and audience.

Truly great ideas are rarely original; they are built upon previous work. Instead of just studying your heroes like Buffett or Jobs, research who *they* studied (e.g., Henry Singleton, Edwin Land). This intellectual genealogy uncovers the timeless, foundational principles they applied.

While founders may be tempted to copy the design of successful products like Linear, this approach can backfire. It signals to the market and potential hires that the company does not fundamentally value original design thinking, which can be a negative indicator of its own product quality and innovation.