Learning from reverse engineering

In product design, reverse engineering is to unearth certain components that can be repurposed for different application. Theft occurs in certain cases where the entire set of components that make up a product is appropriated and for which reason patents and copyright were created . More often, however, reverse engineering, both literally and figuratively is a legitimate way to establish what is going on in a specific field, practice or occupation. In these cases, reversed engineering is a form of dependent creation as evidenced in how original and valuable creations were built on the knowledge, experience, and copying of elements of what came before. Indeed, it is how we learn as humans, from an early age - we copy, then extend. That is, there is always some level of copying in accumulating knowledge directed to discovery and learning. Learning from reverse engineering, "reverse ideation" would mean keeping track of one's own ideation process, say, through sketches - what the architect Michael Graves would call "the referential sketch", or through a record of "swiped ideas" or inspirations from the the web. The recorded ideation process could then be reflected upon, and analysed for links and influences and in so doing becoming a learning experience.