OMG, HOW DID you do it???... Wait, WHAT?!... BuT! HOW?!...Please, tell me how you do it! What's the secret?
...These are things I hear almost every day. Why? Well because I am a magician and surprisingly people really want to know how I do things. A.K.A. They want to know my secrets...
But secrets... Secrets are meant to NOT TO BE revealed! Right?
One shall not reveal thy secrets.
-Bible Genesis 6:66 #justKidding
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The article that you are about to read and ideas in it relate to something I started thinking about after me and my friend recorded a video where we actually reveal some secrets regarding magic tricks.
(I am talking about this video, if you have a minute, feel free to watch it before reading further -> VIDEO)
After this video, we received some messages from magicians being angry at us for revealing tricks. Which made me consider how important are secrets. Not only in magic but in everything... & what is fascinating is that it is closely related to block-chain and decentralization.
Before we dive in...
...this article is not going to reveal any magic tricks. Instead, this article is kind of philosophical discussion on keeping secrets vs sharing secrets in art. And why being more open instead of hiding things, people can grow much much faster & have much more fun.
All right. Go grab cup of steemy cup of tea & let's learn something new ->
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WHY PEOPLE KEEP SECRETS
This is a fundamental thing we have to understand. No matter who you are, you have secrets! Probably TONS OF THEM! All sorts of secrets! Starting from - you fancying someone but keeping it a secret to a business secret of making new technology & not releasing it to public usage.
Reasons to do so can be as many as secrets themselves. But here I want to focus on a very specific type of secrets. Secrets regarding an art. (any art-form or enterprise you can think of)
FOR EXAMPLE:
- Magician creates a trick using new concept & doesn't teach it to anyone else.
- Engineer develops new engine technology for this car company that allows them to save 50% more fuel than all competitors & keeps discovery only for themselves.
- Glassblower discovers new technique to create high-quality glass products that don't break & keeps it a secret.
These are the type of secrets I will speak about here.
So to answer question - why people keep these secrets?
...I think the answer is quite obvious - most of the time people/person/company have monetary & selfish incentive that makes it beneficial to keep discovery/technique/development for themselves. A secret that gives them an edge over other people, other companies.
In the past, most of art forms/industries always kept their developments for themselves. It allowed their enterprise to flourish, stand out and they shared their secrets only with those who proved to be deserving. And actually, to do so makes complete sense. Especially if you are not revealing something that in "bad hands" could turn against you, like atomic bomb & weapon tech.
So is it bad to keep these kinds of industry secrets?... Well, I am not here to discuss ethics & questions of right & wrong. But as you understand, it does make sense to do so, especially when you are in competition with others & when your well-being, life & salary depends on it. It is how it is.
But here is what happens when you are a bit more open. When things become more "open-source"...
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KEEPING SECRETS vs REVEALING SECRETS (Competition vs Collaboration)
I want to make you aware of things that happen when you approach life, business, art from collaborative frame instead of competitive. (Sharing vs Keeping) In order for you to understand what I mean, I will tell you quick story about 2 fascinating art-forms most of the people don't know...
I am still quite young, but during my life, I had interests in a variety of domains. When I was younger I was involved with:
- PARKOUR - free-running [~10 years ago]
- IT - computer programming/coding [~8 years ago]
- CARDISTRY - fancy moves with cards [~8 years ago - present]
Nowadays I perform magic & do photography/videography.
One of the fascinating things I was able to witness, mainly due to the internet, is how these different art-forms were developing & evolving. How things worked then compared to now. What was more popular & cool 10 years ago & what is popular & cool now?
let me explain...
PARKOUR
Parkour - The sport of moving along a route, typically in a city, trying to get around or through various obstacles in the quickest and most efficient manner possible, as by jumping, climbing, or running. (straight from wiki)
We started practicing Parkour years ago. Was very fun times & how this sport has developed is superb. Things, tricks people do now - WOW, just WOW!
For example, when I practiced Parkour ~10 years ago to do wall-flip was one of the top tricks you could do. It was sick!
Wall-Flip - Source
Or to do Monkey Gainer was just MIND-FUCKING-BLOWING. This trick was basically 10 out of 10.
Monkey-Gainer - Source
But nowadays, wall-flip is just one of the basics you do. Nothing special. And Monkey-gainer is all-right, 7 out of 10.
Literally, as I sometimes watch what young kids (~15 years old) do nowadays - MY MIND IS BLOW AWAY... they things that at my time would be not even considered possible.
(IMO) This is an evolution of an art-form.
See, an interesting thing about Parkour community is that they are like a big family. They go out together. Jump around buildings. Do tricks. Learn and improve together. Competition is very playful - who can do the sickest trick. And when someone does something sick, everyone congratulates him and that motivates others to step up their game. Feeling you get by hanging out with these people is that they just have fun, share ideas and support each other. They love improving together. There is nothing really to hide from other peers.
And internet allows that on a much much bigger scale. Thus if one person does something sick in the US, a dude in Australia will be like "Out shit! That's sick! Never thought that! Let me also try that!"
CARDISTRY
The same story I witnessed with Cardistry.
CARDISTRY is a name given to the performance art of card flourishing. The term is a portmanteau of "card" and "artistry". Unlike card magic, Cardistry is meant to be visually impressive and appear very hard to execute.
Fancy definition from Wikipedia
Approx. 8 years ago when I started practicing magic, I was learning different Cardistry moves at the same time. They looked pretty cool and that's what most of the young people who did card tricks at that time practiced. It was just little side hobby.
So 8 years later, now, I can do some pretty cool moves that took some good amount of time to practice. Like this one (done with a normal deck of cards):
Original
But what is fascinating about this Cardistry thing, is how it has developed in last 10 years.
Firstly, 10 years ago there wasn't many resources and people to learn it from & amount of moves was quite limited...
Forward it 10 years later, to present times - Tons of new, incredibly creative concepts and moves. Tons of resources and people to learn from. For me, it's truly astonishing.
Source
And if you wonder - so how people learn Cardistry? Well, mainly from YouTube. Period.
People constantly share, cooperate, create new ideas. There are no secrets!
Well, except maybe some asshole who really wants to keep his move to himself.
Otherwise, it is fully collaborative art-form.
...Do you see, where I am going with these examples???
When Ideas Are Shared Freely - Everyone & Everything Improves Much Much Faster.
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
Lastly, I will mention IT & Block-chain as most of the people who will read this are probably into that.
Computer programming and software is a real game changer in our world.
If you have been writing code for last decade you probably know following:
If you are not learning constantly how to program, write code, you are falling behind. Falling behind new developments, new concepts, new algorithms. It's constantly evolving & with staggering rate, cuz amount of people that are involved in IT industry is HUGE. And resources and places where you can learn that stuff - definitely OVER 9000.
Unfortunately writing code is not so visually appealing as Parkour or Cardistry, thus I will leave this cool gif here:
Source
But I hope now you can see what I mean by Collaborative vs Competitive. What happens when you share. fascinating
Lastly I want to mention "Crypto Currency" (CC) & 1 of the reasons a lot of people are excited about it...
DECENTRALIZATION
See, because of the way CC (technology itself) is built, it fundamentally allows and creates incentives for cooperation.
For example, Steemit/STEEM. There is no central authority who can control the whole STEEM. There is no one particular who can tell you this or that is right. Everyone participates. Everyone has the same opportunity. In a cheesy way, everyone is like a big family.
(FYI - I use very simplistic terms regarding CC here that explain concept in broad strokes. Of course there is much more depth to how CC & decentralization works)
Either way, was interesting to write this, kind of, philosophical article. Based mainly on my thoughts and observations. And I want to leave you with following:
Firstly, consider the idea of cooperation & sharing with others. Why it is much better long-term strategy than keeping everything for yourself.
Secondly, get excited about new era ahead of us. How CC/Block-chain/Decentralization will change our world.
...If only no one fucks up and drops a nuke...
wuabalaba dub dub