"Secrecy is the enemy of efficiency, but don't let anyone know it"
About this Quote
Secrecy is the enemy of efficiency, but don't let anyone know it is Ric Ocasek in miniature: a clean, utilitarian premise sabotaged by a sly grin. The first clause sounds like the kind of management-truth you’d find on a poster in a startup kitchen. Information wants to move; teams work faster when they share it; transparency reduces friction. Then he pulls the rug: but don't let anyone know it. Suddenly the quote isn’t advice for a well-run workplace, it’s a portrait of how workplaces (and bands, and industries) actually run.
The joke lands because it admits a dirty incentive structure. People hoard information not because it’s effective, but because it’s power: the ability to control timing, credit, access, and narrative. Efficiency is what you promise others; secrecy is what you keep for yourself. Ocasek’s line also reads like a wry defense of the artist’s process. In music, mystery is marketing. You want the machine behind the sound to be frictionless, but you don’t want the audience seeing the machine. The Cars were famously sleek: polished surfaces, tight hooks, a kind of engineered cool. That aesthetic depends on hidden labor.
There’s also a band-politics undertow. Anyone who’s watched creative groups fracture knows the paradox: the best work requires candid exchange, while the egos involved often demand gatekeeping. Ocasek doesn’t resolve that tension; he weaponizes it as humor. The punchline is the confession: we know transparency would help, and we’re still going to keep the keys.
The joke lands because it admits a dirty incentive structure. People hoard information not because it’s effective, but because it’s power: the ability to control timing, credit, access, and narrative. Efficiency is what you promise others; secrecy is what you keep for yourself. Ocasek’s line also reads like a wry defense of the artist’s process. In music, mystery is marketing. You want the machine behind the sound to be frictionless, but you don’t want the audience seeing the machine. The Cars were famously sleek: polished surfaces, tight hooks, a kind of engineered cool. That aesthetic depends on hidden labor.
There’s also a band-politics undertow. Anyone who’s watched creative groups fracture knows the paradox: the best work requires candid exchange, while the egos involved often demand gatekeeping. Ocasek doesn’t resolve that tension; he weaponizes it as humor. The punchline is the confession: we know transparency would help, and we’re still going to keep the keys.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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