Trade Secrets are nonsense

I imagine we have all heard the term "trade secret" at one
time or another but when you think about it, what is a
"trade secret" anyway? I am of the opinion that it is just an
excuse used by those who know how to do something to keep
others ignorant of some supposedly secret or special knowledge
that they think will make or break their business.

Personally, I consider it to be a load of crap. Knowledge is
worthless if only a few hold it. Just because someone knows
the how of something does not mean that they have the skills
or interest in learning the skills to take advantage of that
knowledge. So, I see no reason for "trade secrets". When I first
created this site I had the goal of eventually sharing as much of
my knowledge as possible publicly.

So far I've been making some head way in sharing some of
my own "trade secrets". Will sharing this knowledge hurt
my business? I honestly doubt it. Not everyone wants to
learn the tricks of turning raw materials into finished goods.
In fact I think knowing how one of my knives or pieces of
jewelry was created might actually give a person a greater
appreciation for the work that went into it's creation.

As an aside...
In fact I think I can safely say this about the newer project I
started with BSP. Some webmasters tend to think that if surfers
or even other webmasters know too much about how their
website works it will devalue it in their eyes somehow or that
someone will "steal" their ideas. I think I should say this now,
There are few if any new ideas on the internet anymore.

So the next time someone tells you something is a "trade secret",
ask yourself, Why?