A few years back, my sis in law asked me to teach subtractions to my 5-year-old niece!
How hard can it be for an expert who is used to teaching engineering, I thought!
Not a problem, I said! Bring it on!!!
Little did I know that it was going to lead me toward a potential goldmine!
For the sake of example, say we had to do 5-3=___
2!
I told her!
Smooth!
But how do I explain it now?
I started scratching my head!
I just couldn’t come up with an explanation that a 5-year-old could understand…
I tried one method!
Failed!
Another method!
Nope!
One more?
No luck!
Not giving up yet!
! ! ! ! !
One more?
Guess what???
Failed!
What was so simple to me was all Latin and Greek to her!
I could see the dreaded look on her face!
Poor child!
And poor me!
I couldn’t believe that the person struggling to explain 5–3 is the same person who teaches engineering every day!
Later on, her teacher helped me understand that my niece first needed to know the concept of,
- Counting individual numbers.
- Forward and backward numbers
- Bigger numbers and smaller numbers
And
- How cutting down things works to perform subtraction.
Made sense!
But I also must have learnt it the same way back in the past!
Then why couldn’t I explain it to her?
This I when I came face to face with this monster known as the
"CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE "
Or
"CURSE OF EXPERTISE"
When you assume that everyone you are interacting with has the same level of knowledge as you do on the topic, so much so that it becomes impossible to imagine what not knowing it feels like, you have officially entered the “curse zone”
This can leave detrimental impacts on your professional as well as personal life.
This is the reason
- Why some people suck at giving presentations or a speech that is engaging.
- Why some people despite being knowledgeable are the worst teachers.
- Why some people lack patience and empathy while delivering complex ideas.
You also have suffered the attacks of this devil!
Try to remember any expert’s lecture where you’ve thought
"Oh yes, he sounds so eloquent and intelligent! but what’s he actually saying ?"
It’s just blah blah blah to the audience!!!
Music to the ears but meaningless chattering to the mind.
These so-called experts are primarily attacked by this evil because the “CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE” prevents them from remembering what not knowing feels like.
They simply can’t resonate and relate with their audience, which leads to massive failure as a communicator!
Who Is The Soft Target Here?
- Anyone who has to communicate to people about their product, service, or strategy!
- Be it a person in sales and marketing, an Educator, or a CEO.
- Along with professional it also affects your personal life.
When you have to help your oldies about let’s say social media
Or
Being an experienced driver, sitting beside a nuance driver makes you pull your hair at their minor slips over driving.
Because you have forgotten your own mistakes and learning curve.
This is the time when you take entry into the territory of the "curse".
Curse Breaker
- Identifying that you have fallen into the trap of this devil is the very first step towards breaking it!
- Educate yourself about it.
- Cultivate awareness to see how it is affecting your personal and private life.
- Be empathetic! Try to imagine if not understand how difficult it must be for beginners to wrap their heads around new concepts.
Empathy and patience are your weapons here!
- Ask a lot of questions to your audience or the person you are speaking to, to get an idea of their level of understanding.
- Don’t try to impress others using jargon and acronyms without explaining them…
Remember!
An expert is the one who helps to solve the doubt, not the one who makes you curse yourself for even having a doubt!
- Don’t assume too much! Slow down! Pause in between to see if your team understands what you said or not!
I hope you will fight off this monster to become a better professional and person.
Signing off 💗
