This article talks about the importance of sharing one's skills with others.
On the other hand, if the technology is special and very advanced, it is not really easy to share it with others, right?
Incidentally, I have written an article on this blog in the past about why people want to verbally tell you how to do your job.
The article I am going to write this time will be related to that past article, which I wrote in July 2022. It is also quite a long article, so you might want to read it about six months after you read this article I wrote this time (laughs).
Click here for past related articles ↓.
On A Sunny DayWhy Do People Want to Verbally Tell You How to Do Your Job?"
In my past articles on "Why do people do the way they do their jobs?", I have targeted the realities of so-called salaried workers, people who work in companies and other organizations.
So I am criticizing those who
- They keep their own knowledge and experience locked up in their own heads and do not want to pass it on to others.
- Too much emphasis is placed on verbal communication or on-the-job training, with too little emphasis on written documents such as work manuals.
But at the same time that I criticize them, I also think this.
The situation may be a little different between an ordinary office worker with no special skills and a professional with very special skills.
1. Examples of making technology available to the public
Let me give you two specific examples.
- Baseball player reveals how to throw a breaking ball
- Craftsmen who pass on the art of violin making to foreign countries.
1-1 Baseball players who publish their own techniques on the Internet
See you then,This is the first example of making technology available to the public.
I will talk about Darvish, an American Major League Baseball pitcher.
He published on his social media site in 2020 how he throws his signature breaking ball and how he grips the ball. It is a video site that everyone can watch for free.
I think, it is really great that you are willing to share with the public the special techniques you have developed in this way.
Because he came from Japan to the U.S. and is good enough to play in the major leagues.
How much time and effort he has put in to get to where he is standing now.
He may be too generous. I even feel that way. Because if you teach these special and advanced techniques to everyone, of course they will be copied by the same big league pitchers.
What would happen if the opposing team's pitcher learned how to throw Darvish's breaking ball and threw a better breaking ball than before?
Hitters on the allied team to which Darvish belongs will have more difficulty than before in hitting back balls thrown by opposing pitchers who have become more advanced and powerful. This is easy to imagine.
As a result, the performance of the hitters on your team and the team's ranking in the league may decline.
1-2 Why did he disclose his valuable technology?
Nevertheless, Darvish still disclosed the skills he had acquired through his own hard work. Why on earth did he do so?
He is said to have stated the reason for this.
It would be a shame to keep my skills to myself."
Rather than keeping your skills to yourself, it is better to dare to openly share them with others, so that others can grow and compete with each other at an even higher level.
When individuals improve in this way, the result is positive for baseball as a whole (is this understanding correct?). (Am I understanding this correctly?).
Sharing one's skills and knowledge openly with others, as Darvish does, is literally called "open sharing," and it is now spreading to various fields.
The significance of this open sharing is explained in detail on NHK's "Close-Up Today" website. Please take the time to read it.
NHK Close Up GendaiThe "Open Share Revolution" for Developing Capabilities
1-3 Violin makers who pass on their skills
Next,A second example of making technology available to the publicThe following is a list of the most common problems with the
This is a story about the art of making musical instruments.
A prominent Italian conductor in Europe once said something along these lines in a television interview.
We have generously passed on our excellent violin-making skills to foreign countries!The following is a list of the most common problems with the
Italy is famous for its once renowned violin makers. Stradivari and Guarneri, and the instruments made in their workshops are still of unrivaled quality.
Let me take the liberty of translating what this conductor wanted to say here to make it a little clearer for you.
Stradivari and Guarneri had the technology to make such wonderful instruments, they could have kept it to themselves. They could have made it their monopoly, and they could have continued to sell the excellent instruments they made for a high price. Nevertheless, we Italians were generous enough to pass on our advanced technology to the rest of the world! Isn't this amazing?"
I may have been a bit too literal in my translation, but I think this is roughly what the conductor was trying to say.
This is another "open sharing" of instrument-making techniques.
1-4 What happened to passing on the art of making musical instruments?
Thanks to the fact that they passed on their skills to their peers, the art of violin making spread from Italian workshops to other European countries, and makers in various countries improved their skills with each other, until today. It is not difficult to imagine this.
Darvish's disclosure of his change pitch technique and the subsequent improvement in the overall level of technique in the big leagues.
Similarly, the transmission of techniques to foreign countries by instrument makers such as Stradivari must have greatly improved the technical level of the entire industry of instrument making.
Incidentally, a man named Antonio Stradivari was active in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
To pass on one's valuable skills to one's competitors is something that people have been doing for such a long time.
(Trivia) Stradivari is the name (surname) of the maker. And the generic name for the instruments that he and his students made in his workshop is "Stradivarius".
2. Examples of not disclosing technology
Now, let us consider those who do not disclose their skills, or, to put it more bluntly, do not want to. This is the opposite pattern of the people mentioned above.
Two examples will be given in this issue.
- Professional baseball player like Darvish pitcher
- Same instrument maker as Stradivari
2-1 Baseball Players Who Were Not Taught the Core of the Technique
wellThe first example of not disclosing technologyThe following is a list of the most common problems with the
This is the story of a famous professional baseball player.
This episode happened once when I was watching a live professional baseball game on TV.
I was very impressed by what the commentator of the game, a famous professional baseball player who had already retired at the time, had to say.
It is so old that I don't remember every word of it exactly. However, I clearly remember the main idea. I will translate what the player was trying to say again, and this is what he said.
When I observe the camps of the teams before the season, I am asked many questions, especially by young players. Well, if they ask me, I give them advice to some extent.But, I never taught him the important part, which I had finally found through my own desperate efforts."
In the world of professional baseball, starting around February, before the season begins in the spring, each team uses a warm region as a base for its players to practice in various ways in order to prepare for the upcoming new season. This is called "camp.
Baseball commentators (usually former players who have retired after an outstanding active career) will visit each team's spring camp to cover the event.
On the players' side, once great players are coming to their doorstep for a visit. They will have the opportunity to ask questions directly.
In response to questions from players in such situations, the former player would never tell them about the most important part of the game, the core of the most important technique.
I was still young and unthinking at the time, and when I heard him say this, I honestly thought to myself. 'He's a petty old man. Teach him a lesson."
Because he himself is already retired, he has nothing to lose by teaching the next generation of players, no matter how hard he has worked to acquire the skills.
2-2 Piano makers who never disclosed their techniques
See you then,This is the second example of not disclosing technology.
An episode about a piano maker. This is a story I once read in a newspaper article.
This man was an outstanding instrument maker, but he never wanted to share his achievements with his peers.
Frankly speaking, I do not remember the details of that newspaper article. However, I do remember clearly some of the piano maker's words, which I still remember today.
His own piano making skillsto "take (something) to the graveHe told people around him that he was a "good person" and that he was "a good person.
What an extraordinary determination to "take it to the grave!" It exudes the spirit of "I will never, ever, ever share my skills with others.
2-3 Can you understand why they don't want to release the technology to the public?
The feelings of this former baseball player and piano maker. Do you, the reader, understand? Or did you feel a certain negativity, as I did when I was younger?
But now that I am quite a bit older, I am beginning to somewhat understand the feelings of those who did not go public.
The skills of a professional baseball player, for example, are fundamentally different in nature from those acquired by an ordinary salaryman, which can be acquired by anyone with a certain level of intelligence.
It is a job that really only a handful of talented people can get. Among them, it is even more difficult to play regularly and constantly in the game.
As I write this blog now, I am reminded of one thing. The newspaper article said that he, a piano maker, was thinking about pianos whether he was asleep or awake, even while he was going to the bathroom.
He really put his whole life energy into making pianos. That is why he never wanted to teach others.
A professional baseball player and a piano maker. These two professions are so different that one could say that there is no connection between them at all.
What they both have in common, however, is that they possess extremely advanced techniques that were acquired through long hours of exploration and trial and error. Is it such a bad thing that they would never want to share the core of their skills with others?
As a professional who has honed a special skill, perhaps it is a natural emotion. What do you all think?
3. Can you criticize those who do not disclose their technology?
Making one's skills available to one's peers creates a wonderful synergy. Time has already proven that.
The breadth of vision and perspective of those who are willing to openly share the techniques they have finally acquired as a result of long hours of exploration. This is to be commended, of course.
On the other hand, however, there are those who hesitated to disclose their technology, or at least the core of their technology.
Can we criticize them for their single-minded unwillingness to openly share?
Thinking about it as I write this blog, I think again.
A person may choose to disclose his or her skills and knowledge, or he or she may choose to keep them private. Whichever stance one takes, if the technology is unique, it is not something that others can readily interfere with.
4. Open sharing, which is still meaningful
Nevertheless, as I have written in previous posts on this blog, general skills and knowledge within the company should be shared with other members more and more.
This is because sharing those skills and knowledge will enable each member to reach a higher level in less time and with greater certainty.
And if we share our skills and knowledge with others in this way, nothing is lost.
Also, even if the technology is not so common, the kind of sharing that accelerates the evolution of the individual and the organization as a whole is also worthy of disclosure, such as open source in the IT world.
This article did not cover technologies related to competition among companies, i.e., technologies developed independently by each company, because of other issues such as patents.
However, in the world of medicine, for example, generics are also open share, aren't they? However, healthcare is a field of very high public interest.
I believe that generic drugs are an open share that was made possible because the nature of patents in the field of medicine is very different from patents in other areas of business (or so it should be understood...).
In addition to the examples given in this article, I am sure that the technology is still expanding its availability to the public in diverse fields that I am unaware of.
Is the world moving in the absolute right direction, for the better, with technology openness, or open sharing? And will the momentum continue to spread without end?
I will continue to look closely at the transitions in this world in my own way.
Now, you who have read this redundant sentence to the end. Thank you so much!
I end this article with my deepest gratitude. Until next time, See You!