February 2012
Beginner to intermediate
250 pages
3h 41m
English
| Essay 34 | Beware the “Curse of Knowledge” |
In the popular Chip and Dan Heath book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die [HH07], the brothers argue that once you’ve become an expert in a particular domain, it is nearly impossible to understand what it feels like to not understand that domain.
Think of how you would explain color to a person born without sight or how you would explain sound to a person born without hearing. In a less extreme example, think of a lawyer who can’t give you a clear answer to a legal question without all sorts of abstractions and qualifications.
They call this the curse of knowledge.

Undoubtedly, one ...
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