[TheForge] trade secrets

[John Husvar]

On 11/25/06 4:42 PM, "David E. Smucker" <davesmucker at hotmail.com> wrote:

 
> works, great, but if things go wrong you have tons of scrap and very upset
> customers to deal with.  So you might get close to having the trade secrets
> but not the depth to deal with the problems.  I am sure that things are
> similar in many other fields or companies.
> 

Many "trade secrets" are simply that vast difference between knowing _what_
to do and knowing _how_ to do it.

After all, blacksmithing is "only" hitting hot metal with a hammer, no?

How many times has each one of us had one of those
darn-why-the-heck-didn't-I-think-of-doing-it-that-way moments upon watching
another smith easily do something he'd been struggling with?

Ancient Chinese Secrets 'R' us, eh? :)