Well, this is nuts.

“The HHS just confirmed a long-running conspiracy theory is true. ‘Organ donors’ are having their organs removed when they're still alive, and often when they're still able to be brought back from the brink.” - Crémieux

Wait, what? No, this isn't about literal organ theft (though yes, you should still be a donor; organ theft doesn’t actually happen that often!). It's about something way more interesting: how we live in a paradoxical age where our seemingly infinite capacity to create in the digital world goes hand-in-hand with our limitless capacity to grift. 

Behold - the GENIUS Act.

But who says stealing is always bad? 

Sadly, no - I’m not talking about the Sly Cooper-types or the Les Misérables moral quandaries, like stealing bread to feed your family. 

Your kindergarten teacher said stealing was bad. The Ten Commandments said so too. But then you grow up and realize it may be more complicated than that.

As you know, last week we talked about murder in the status games - “the premium is on authenticity; at least the performance.” _{cringe to cite myself, forgive me.}

Well, we can say the same about our society’s obsession with originality. We live in an era where everyone screams about “innovation” — coming up with the next big thing. But they conflate innovation with originality. 

Don’t worry - you don’t have to choose between either inventing the newest, most original start-up, or resorting to hosting Fyre Festival _{plz tell me you’ve seen the Netflix documentary.} 

Innovation isn't about creating from nothing. It's about stealing the right things and combining them in ways nobody's thought of yet. The difference between a criminal and a visionary isn't the theft; it's the transformation.

In a world obsessed with originality, the smartest players are master thieves. They just know what's worth stealing, how to do it, and what's worth leaving behind.

Thankfully, you will too.

Let’s start with straight-up theft.

Don’t do this. This is plagiarism, counterfeit goods, copy-paste content - pure deceit. This gets you sued, cancelled, in jail, or worse. So don’t do it.

Some obvious examples:

There are even some nations who’ve mastered theft and deceit.

National-Level Grifting: China's Great IP Heist deserves its own Netflix series. While America built two major, in-country manufacturing companies in 20 years (SpaceX and Tesla, both Elon's), China built dozens by just stealing the blueprints.

Tesla (among many other companies) handed over their IP for access to Chinese factories and engineers. Now China's eating their lunch in EVs.

They’re even racing to steal the future by “wooing” scientists in the U.S. to return to China.

China frankly doesn't give a shit about IP theft complaints from the West. From their view, the West stole what was theirs during the Century of Humiliation. Now they're full steam ahead on stealing it back, along with the spot for #1 world power.

The problem with this level of theft is that it’s zero-sum. Someone loses so someone else can win. You're not creating value to grow the pie.

You even see it in politics. GOP figures try to rip off Trump’s style - the blasé and brazenness, but they ain’t got the sauce!!!

Be better than just a photocopier.

Now we’re cooking.

As you learn art, music, painting, writing, you learn to play the song you love, paint what you see, rewrite your favorite passages and chapters to understand what you love to read. That’s how you improve. This is practicing and growing.

Like Hunter S. Thompson typing out the novel Great Gatsby to feel the rhythm. 

This is the Shu before the Ha from the concept in my last post (Shu-Ha-Ri).

Like a cover band.

Remember, it’s not just ideas, things, and products, but also systems and trajectories that are copied and remixed.

Just look how entrepreneur Shaan Puri explains the importance of remixing in the creative process:

Now expand this to what every country should be doing - taking and adapting each other’s top performing systems.

Dubai became the "Singapore of the Middle East".

Israel pioneered desalination in a desert, so Singapore adapted their water management system to their own context.

South Korea speed-ran Japan's development playbook on encouraging growth via foreign exports. Vietnam copied what it could from China's economic development playbook.

Estonia managed to become one of the most technologically developed societies in the world, not by stealing Silicon Valley's tech, but taking inspiration from them and adjusting to their own context.

Then we have what countries should have already stolen but haven’t yet:

Europe adopting AC to match the U.S. (like Singapore did)

UK and rest of Europe copying U.S.’s protection of freedom of speech, otherwise you get stuff like this:

U.S. should adapt Europe’s ability to build cheaper and better infrastructure.

As entrepreneur Sam D’Amico explains, “every superstar city in the US needs to think about where their Shenzhen is.” Meaning, “an expensive superstar city with lots of knowledge workers + financial horsepower that would accelerate advanced manufacturing in a new jurisdiction nearby.”

Briefly on what should NOT be stolen: 

Like writer Matthew Yglesias has pointed out, banana republic-styles of governing. In short:

In the business world, there’s the constant "Uber for X" – it’s not Uber, but it’s using that anchor to sell the adaptation.

Ramon Vullings’ Not Invented Here: Cross-Industry Innovation shares endless examples of this cross-pollination across all industries.

Examples:

The magic of remixing is that it's positive-sum. Singapore learning from Israel doesn’t make Israels systems worse, it just makes Singapore better. Maybe Israel even learns from Singapore’s iteration.

From blatant theft to remixing and adapting, if you’re good enough, you then learn how to transform.

Brazil may have “invented the future of money” via their digital payment system run by the central bank, called Pix.

Sure, China didn't invent solar panel technology, but they may be transforming the entire clean energy industry.

This is how the greats have done it forever.

Derek Thompson describes best:

“This is how electricity was born. Alessandro Volta built the first electric battery by acting on the conviction that Luigi Galvani was wrong. Three decades later, Michael Faraday discovered the principles that power the modern economy by proving that Volta was wrong. A century after that, scientists built defibrillators and electric brain implants by proving that, well, you know all those people who said Galvani was wrong? Actually, they were wrong, too. Science is not about getting things right. It’s about getting things wrong, and wrong, and wrong again, and from this cavalcade of wrongnesses overturned, a useful thing sometimes emerges.”

Breakthroughs are built on the corpses of other people’s ideas.

So a single actor — individual or nation-state — can be operating in multiple parts of the spectrum of ‘theft’ at any time, in any given idea, product, or industry.

China’s growth and development was based on all three — stealing, adapting, and transforming.

And now, other countries are in this stage of adapting from China, like Saudi Arabia.

Culture

China and Miami can try and copy Silicon Valley, but they can’t capture its real success.

California banning non-competes was part of what led to industrial-scale idea laundering. Employees leap frog between companies, supercharging the vortex of hyper-competition and productivity.

Silicon Valley's real moat doesn’t happen to be just the VCs or the universities, but the culture of swinging for the fences out of the hopes of getting a big payout, and/or changing the world. China and others can only copy so much of this.

Trust

India's diamond industry runs on handshake deals. Hard to steal.

Existential Threats

Israel's military innovation comes from constant existential threat. Difficult to replicate.

Geographic Luck

Singapore's port location; Texas’ solar energy capabilities; America's two-ocean advantage.

Time

“Time is our greatest weapon.” - Axel Dumas, the Hermès CEO.

Network effects that took generations to build, like Florence during the Renaissance, Vienna in the 1900s, or the conditions that allowed for the PayPal Mafia to blow up. Or Oxford's 800-year reputation.

Maybe you thought about theft wrong this whole time. Maybe, the best ‘theft’ can make everyone richer, including the victim.

Thanks for taking the Pack,

Zach

_{The vibe-killer disclaimer: The opinions in this post and all other posts only represent myself and do not represent the opinions of my employer or any groups I am a member of.
This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.}