[brooksbp]

> everyone in the biz was super secretive [..] even stuff that I would take from [..] (which were public knowledge)

It's not just Finance but other industries have this culture as well. I suspect it manifests in an environment that is perceived to be hyper competitive--any perceived advantage regardless of where it came from or how differentiated it is, is held closely and over-weighed if proper metrics aren't in place to continue pushing for improvement.