The Curse of Knowledge
Well, then you’ve experienced the curse of knowledge.
The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, communicating with other individuals, unknowingly assumes that the others have the background to understand. This bias is most commonly associated with the domain of teaching, where it occurs primarily when experts in a certain field struggle to teach beginners because they find it difficult to account for the fact that not everyone has the same level of expertise that they do.
Since experts are much more knowledgeable about the topic that they are teaching than their students, they often struggle to teach the material in a way that their students can understand. For example, a math professor might find it difficult to teach first-year students, because it’s hard for the professor to account for the fact that he has a different level of background knowledge than those students.
In business, a lot of potential is lost in communication between top executives and employees due to the curse of knowledge. Executives might formulate their ideas in vague statements that they assume everybody understands. They have had years of immersion in the logic and conventions of business, so when they speak abstractly, they are simply summarizing the mass of concrete data in their heads. As a result, important instructions can be misunderstood and strategies fail if ideas are not communicated in a manner that even an outsider could understand.
We see the world through our eyes and rarely put ourselves in the perspective of others when we communicate. We simply do not always remember to assess the other person’s knowledge level first before talking. And while it is impossible to lay off the effect of the curse of knowledge entirely, there are certain measures we can take.
The most important step is already done: being aware that the curse of knowledge bias exists. Even knowing that there are people with different knowledge levels helps you identify situations in which the bias might occur.
Furthermore, in some cases, and especially when it comes to teaching, one of the best ways to account for the curse of knowledge is to ask for feedback from the people that you are communicating with in order to confirm that they understand everything you are saying. This will allow you to assess the difference in knowledge levels between yourself and others.
In addition, a good way to prevent many of the issues which are associated with gaps in knowledge is to ensure that you explain every technical term and concept that you use as you are using it, even if it seems obvious to you, any time when you’re not perfectly sure that the vast majority of your intended audience will be able to understand it.
Remember that communication is only successful when the receiver gets the message in the way you want them to. The best teachers and leaders can explain complex topics so that even a 10-year-old can understand them.
Stay valorous (= доблесний).
