Concerns about the future of ideas 

Bricolage, a concept originally studied by Levi Strauss many years ago, relates to the concrete. It has to do with the ability to find something—an object, tool, piece of code, document—and to use it in a new way and in a new context. In fact, virtually no system today is built from scratch or first principles—like the way I used to build systems—but rather from finding examples of code on the Web, borrowing "that code," bringing it onto their site, and then modifying it to fit their needs. Today's systems are built up through an extensive sense of bricolage—by cobbling or "wiring" together code fragments and extending or modifying such fragments when necessary. The catch, however, is that if you are going to become a successful bricoleur of the 21st century, a bricoleur of the virtual rather than of the physical, than as you borrow things you have to be able to decide whether or not to believe or trust those things.

Burdened with tasks, deadlines, and their accompanying frustrations, Bach often relied on recycling his own compositions or borrowing music from his predecessors or his contemporaries. The practice of parodying as commonly practiced and accepted then would often qualify as plagiarism under the copyright laws of today. Without such laws to hamper him, Bach was a master of recasting, merging borrowed materials with his own ideas to produce works melodically more subtle and rhythmically more exciting. At times, Bach did just copy from other composers, though presumably only when the music suited his own refined taste.