Re: Four social trends have conspired to root out belief in screts.
I found the original text in the link below. My comments are in the square brackets.
https://books.google.com/books?id=M...spired to root out belief in secrets"&f=false
Along with the natural fact that physical frontiers have receded
[the world is more globalized; borders are disappearing; there's more contact between people; therefore, there's less scope for secrets] , four social trends have conspired to root out belief in secrets
[In addition, four recent social phenomena/trends are also eradicating people's belief in (regard for) secrets.] .
First is incrementalism. From an early age, we are taught that the right way to do things is to proceed one very small step at a time, day by day, grade by grade. If you overachieve and end up learning something that’s not on the test, you won’t receive credit for it. But in exchange for doing exactly what’s asked of you (and for doing it just a bit better than your peers), you’ll get an A. This process extends all the way up through the tenure track, which is why academics usually chase large numbers of trivial publications instead of new frontiers.
[The first trend is incrementalism. This means: in modern society, you are rewarded when you do exactly what is asked of you and just a tiny bit more. You are not rewarded when you perform excessively. For example, a student who gives a correct answer in a maths test gets a good grade, and one who gives a correct answer and cites the correct theorem gets a slightly higher grade; however, a student who provides the correct answer, cites the theorem and also explains the whole theorem (because he thinks this is his secret weapon to get a better result) will not get a higher grade than the other two.]
Second is risk aversion. People are scared of secrets because they are scared of being wrong. By definition, a secret hasn’t been vetted by the mainstream. If your goal is to never make a mistake in your life, you shouldn’t look for secrets. The prospect of being lonely but right - dedicating your life to something that no one else believes in - is already hard. The prospect of being lonely and wrong can be unbearable.
[The second trend (in modern society) that is working against secrets is risk aversion. Secrets are hidden so they can't be verified by the mainstream (the majority in any field), so that has made people shun secrets.]
Third is complacency. Social elites have the most freedom and ability to explore new thinking, but they seem to believe in secrets the least. Why search for a new secret if you can comfortably collect rents on everything that has already been done? Every fall, the deans at top law schools and business schools welcome the incoming class with the same implicit message: “You got into this elite institution. Your worries are over. You’re set for life.” But that’s probably the kind of thing that’s true only if you don’t believe it.
[The third trend is complacency (laziness). This is similar and related to the first (incrementalism). It means there's no point in trying to invent something special/new (a secret) to do well in life. For example, even students who get into elite universities are told that they've already ensured success in their life; they just need to pass the exams and graduate; they don't need to try and come up with something innovative.]
Fourth is “flatness.” As globalization advances, people perceive the world as one homogeneous, highly competitive marketplace: the world is “flat.” Given that assumption, anyone who might have had the ambition to look for a secret will first ask himself: if it were possible to discover something new, wouldn’t someone from the faceless global talent pool of smarter and more creative people have found it already? This voice of doubt can dissuade people from even starting to look for secrets in a world that seems too big a place for any individual to contribute something unique.
[The fourth trend is “flatness” (sameness/homogeneity) caused by globalization. People now think that there's no point in trying to be innovative (look for special secrets) because they doubt there are any more secrets to be discovered in today's globalized world. A person may think: if my idea (special secret) is any good, someone else would have already discovered (and possibly patented!) it; therefore, my idea is not worth pursuing.]
Does that help? ;-)
