They Won’t Steal Your Secret Recipe

Do you have a secret recipe?

I have some, I’m sure you do too. Here’s the problem with secret recipes:

For as long as they’re a secret, they’re useless.

Want to know what I do with mine?

I put them in blog posts so they’re not secret anymore. So the world can see them. So I’m challenged to give those recipes form, flavor, nuance and hopefully, a modicum of elegance. The trappings of your innermost thoughts excuse flabby, unfinished ideas from working out and being their best. The requirement of pressing “Publish” on yours whips them into shape.

I put them in documentation so something can be done with them. A recipe that isn’t produced the same way every time isn’t a recipe, it’s a ‘happy accident’. It’s a recipe when it’s written down and repeatable with predictable results. The consequent benefit is the ability to then refine your recipes, making them ever more effective.

I put them in books as time allows, so others can build upon the recipes. We all know the person who learns most in a good classroom is the teacher, so the natural next step from documentation (an environment where others can repeat your steps without necessarily understanding them) is to equip them with a full understanding of every nuance of how that recipe came to be. Your recipe can thrive and develop, and those who read it will not forget its source.

So. Do you have a secret recipe? What will you do to stop it from being a secret?