What it means to be avant-garde by David Antin (1993)

And if you have to invent something new to do the work at hand you will
but not if you have a ready-made that will work and is close at hand
and you want to get on with the rest of the business
then you’ll pick up the tool that’s there
a tool that somebody else has made that will work
and you’ll lean on it and feel grateful when it’s good to you
for somebody else’s work

and you’ll think of him as a friend who would borrow as freely from you if he thought of it or needed to
because there is a community of artists
who don’t recognize copyright and patents
or shouldn’t
except under unusual circumstances
who send each other tools in the mail or exchange them in conversation in a bar.

From: What it Means to Be Avant-Garde by David Antin