[saivan]

a) It opens you up to criticism, to find potential improvements to your style - if you think that your style can't be improved, then sure: hold onto it and never let it go!

b) If everybody held onto their knowledge because it was valuable, I'd venture to say that you'd only have a fraction of the knowledge you have now - since there wouldn't be any resources for you to consume yourself

c) It disseminates your work, more people know what you're working on, and that means that when you make a claim regarding the value of your work, people will take you seriously. How am I supposed to judge the value of your work if you don't have a readily available body of work for me to cross-reference against.

d) If your pattern truly creates value, then others will start to use it in software you don't contribute to; which will mean more rapid progress that you can again benefit from.

Human knowledge acquisition is not meant to be solitary, so if you don't want to share; thats up to you. But you need to realise that sharing is always a game of give and take.

[irregular-john]

A lot of great points. I definitely acknowledge that I wouldn't be where I am without a lot of others' tutorials.

I particularly like your third point - I obviously can't share the proprietary work I've done, but this is something I could share and would demonstrate (hopefully) some of my competencies.