The Curse of Knowledge

What seems easy to you is not so easy for others.

Chip Heath calls this the Curse of Knowledge:  “The Curse of Knowledge: when we are given knowledge, it is impossible to imagine what it's like to LACK that knowledge."

You might have noticed this whenever you are explaining how to use the internet to your grandparents, or how to drive a stick-shift to your teenager.

When you understand how to do something well, it’s challenging to explain this to someone just starting out.

I was playing catch in the front yard with my daughter the other day. We were working on throwing the ball. Seems like a simple enough thing to learn, except that it’s been 30 years since I learned how to throw a baseball. By now, I just know how to do it. I can’t easily explain it.

I found myself getting frustrated standing in front of her as she struggles to get her feet in the right position to make a toss. She is off balance, throwing across her body without enough force to make it to me in the air. Why can’t she just throw?

She’s aggravated with me as I bumble through my words in an effort to coach her.

Set aside for a moment that no 8-year old wants to listen to their dad. She has to learn how to throw a ball, and I have to be the one to teach her.

It’s my job to break down the motion into each component. How to stand. How to hold your arm at the start, middle, and end of the throw. How to step into the throw. Where your hand should finish after the throw. How to aim so the ball reaches its target.

So I slowed down my explanation. Worked on one motion at a time. And little-by-little, her throw got stronger and more accurate.

There will be many more sessions of playing catch. She will likely regress or need to re-learn some parts of how to throw.

But she will get better each time she is exposed to the skill. And eventually she will find it easy to throw a ball.‍

Learn how to teach

Learning how to teach is one of those life skills that pays off whether you’re teaching your daughter to throw a baseball or coaching someone at work to do their job better.

It’s imperative that we share our knowledge with others. It’s primal. It’s part of our evolution as humans. We are all born teachers.

Of course it is within all of us to teach the things that we “just know how to do”, but we struggle to teach because we are blind to the components of the motion.

It took me too long to learn this in my own career as a sales leader. I couldn’t understand why people struggled to sell the same way that I do. I failed a number of good salespeople along the way, leaving them to learn on the job and figure it out themselves.

I didn’t take the time to really think about what I was doing, which means I didn’t fully understand why it worked.

Richard Feynman said “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”. This holds true for teaching any principle or skill.‍

Put it On Paper

After years of struggling to scale our team beyond just a few salespeople, I decided to write down what I know and share it with the team.

The process of writing it down forced me to think clearly about how to sell and why it works.

It set me on a path to learn from others, to refine my thinking, and to research the principles behind why and how people make purchasing decisions.

This is the foundation of coaching and teaching, and everyone is a teacher.

The curse of knowledge is real, but it is also a gift.

You know something worth sharing, and you have a responsibility to teach it to others.

Start by writing it down. Go slowly and break it down to each of the components.

Then share it with someone who needs help.

Teaching what you know is one of the most useful, rewarding things you’ll ever do.

She’ll figure out how to throw a perfect strike.

Someone on your team will close the deal on their own.

But only because you took the time to teach what you know.

And it all starts by slowing down and writing it out.