[jmchuster]

You can probably think of it as hidden secret in the sense that, here a couple of people who believe they have greatly increased their own productivity, that it gives them an advantage relative to others, and that you need to piece together from their thoughts how you might apply such anecdata to yourself.

My interpretation of these articles is that it is worthwhile to become faster and more productive, that there are real tangible benefits to your quality of life. And that you might gain a lot of productivity by deliberately training your skill at "low-level" components of your workflow, e.g. doubling your typing speed, practicing writing documents, perfecting the use of your tools.