CODEXCard 5 of 9 · Patterns in Yourself You Have No Words For
Curse of knowledge
Once you know something, you cannot remember not knowing it.
The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias in which knowing something makes it hard to picture not knowing it. The term was popularised by economists studying how better informed people misjudge others, and it later became a staple of writing and teaching advice. Once an idea is obvious to you, it is very hard to remember why it was ever confusing.
It happens because understanding changes how we see a problem. Experts organise knowledge into big chunks and automatic steps. They no longer notice the small moves that a beginner must think through one by one. So an expert explains at the level of the chunks, leaving out exactly the parts a newcomer needs.
The mistake is treating the curse as fixed. It is partly beatable with practice. You can write for someone who has never heard of your topic, watch real beginners try your instructions, and treat their confusion as information rather than as a sign they are slow. Explaining with concrete examples before abstract rules also helps.
This connects to the Feynman approach of learning, explaining an idea in plain language as if to a newcomer to find out where your own understanding has gaps.
Example
A keen gardener gives a neighbour instructions for growing tomatoes: plant out after the last frost, pinch out the side shoots, feed weekly once they set. The neighbour nods politely, then searches online for what a side shoot is. A quick walk through the garden, pointing at real plants, would have taken five minutes.
Try it this week
Before sending your next set of instructions, have someone unfamiliar with the topic read it and mark every step they find unclear.
From Patterns in Yourself You Have No Words For (Cognitive Science).
