This quote is not from Picasso, it is in fact much older[0]. The stealing part of this phrase was more about how great artists make existing ideas their own("stealing"), reinterpreting them on the way.

[0] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/06/artists-steal/

That was Jobs's error, though, not the parent's. And the fact that Jobs said it is the relevant point.

If you're gonna steal, better damn make sure your output is better than the original. Otherwise it'll have a cheap knockoff feel to it.

Copying Apple's style of e.g. the settings icon is just that, copying. Nothing to be proud of, and just tells me the developer has their priorities wrong if they think this style is part of what needs stealing to give the user a good experience.

>Picasso had a saying -- 'good artists copy; great artists steal'

I obviously can't say what Picasso thought that meant, but I have a theory on what it actually means:

"Copying" vs "Stealing" refers to how well you break it down and use the underlying components of a design. "Copying" is more or less just mimicking the feature with a few tweaks, whereas "stealing" is redesigning it from first principles based on what the best ideas in it seem to be, and making it your own.

For example (not necessarily a good one, I don't claim to be a "great artist"), take regenerating health in COD: the idea appears to be removing persistence between engagements, by resetting health back to full after you've stopped being shot.

Okay then, why not have regenerating ammo or regenerating grenades?

Well, it looks like it's a stealth nerf against really good players - after a few fights without being killed, you have to fight without grenades, VS freshly respawned players (who statistically are the players who die more often) who do get grenades. Unless the player was conserving grenades through early fights, which is also a disadvantage (if self-imposed).

Okay, what can we do with this?

Well, if you're playing a highly competitive game then perhaps add "regenerating grenades", else add some sort of bonus score for getting killstreaks.

If you're making a more casual game, then you can amp the regeneration effect up by giving more low/single-use items that are essentially a quiet buff for newbies who'll die before they get a kill anyway.

Maybe you could add a pool of none regenerating health to limit the effectiveness of it on pro players, without removing it entirely? Like armour that you spawn with, that blocks e.g. 10% of damage but slowly breaks as you take more and more damage?

Point is, this all started with regenerating health, yet now it's informing grenade stuff. If you'd just directly copy/pasted "perFrame: health++" with minimal changes then you'd miss out on a ton of useful tools here.

EDIT: also, you could take the mechanic in a different direction entirely - what would happen if everyone lost health outside of battle instead of gaining health? Maybe combine that with gaining some health after every kill, so people are forced to get into battles to stay alive?

Or, what if health was always regenerating, instead of only regenerating when you're not being shot at?

I guess "steal" means that it's a more advanced way of "copying", i.e. you can get away with grabbing others' idea without being noticed and can still be considered as "original".

To do that, one needs to get the essence, the principle, and the deep underlying logic of another work, rather than simply copying something at the surface level.