10 ways to defeat the curse of knowledge

Great articles are the product of deep research. Research makes you more knowledgeable about the topic, helps defeat writer’s block, and gives an extra oomph to your article.

That’s all true. But…

Knowledge can also be a curse, rather than a blessing. It can make it difficult to simplify complex concepts in a way your readers can understand.

Below, I’ll describe the curse of knowledge, give examples of how it manifests itself in our writing, and offer tips for overcoming it.

Let’s get to it!

What's the curse of knowledge?

Have you ever had a teacher who tried to explain a complex subject but only succeeded in making it more complex? Or a person who assumes it’s easy to understand a concept and becomes disappointed when you can’t?

Good — That’s the curse of knowledge in play.

It's a cognitive bias that makes individuals assume their audience has the background knowledge to understand them. It manifests in all forms of communication, especially writing.

A groundbreaking experiment by Elizabeth Newton in 1996 better illustrates it.

Science proves the curse of knowledge

Elizabeth Newton divided test subjects into two groups: tappers and listeners.

The tappers tapped out a song they just heard and listeners tried to guess it correctly.

The tappers were asked to predict how many songs the listeners would guess correctly. And they answered 50 per cent (1 out of 2).

Guess what?

It was a measly 1 out of 40 songs (0.25%), over 40% below what the tappers predicted.

But this is no surprise.

The tappers were hearing the melody of the songs blaring in their subconscious as they tapped and wrongly assumed, it was easy for the listeners to figure it out.?

Meanwhile, the listeners only heard drab taps. No tune, no melody.

Writers and the curse of knowledge

Writers have more to lose to the curse of knowledge than visual communicators.?

Why?

Because readers can't ask questions when they don’t understand. Instead, they leave the page and never come back, resulting in high bounce rates, a poor brand reputation, and a low ranking on SERPS.?

There are many ways writers fall into the curse of knowledge. Here are some of them:

1. Skipping steps in how-to articles

Say, for instance, you’re writing a how-to article on baking a doughnut.?

For you to explain the process to your readers, you'd take a practical session or read several cook books. This makes you well-knowledgeable about the entire process, as to explain it to someone else.

But you may skip some steps, because you assume the reader already knows it. You may gloss over mentioning how long the dough should rest. Or the amount of baking powder to use.

You may think you're doing readers a favor by cutting off that detail. But, no. You’re doing them a disfavor. They may never get it right, because of the little details you left out.

2. Failing to introduce ourselves to new email signups.

Imagine this for a moment:

A new person signs up for your newsletter. You don’t introduce yourself or give an overview of what the receiver should expect. Then, days later, you send an email with the next issue of the newsletter.?

Ever done that?? Well, you fell into the trap of the curse of knowledge.

3. Adding “and more” to lists

We Often end lists with? "and more" as a shortcut.?

Take this for example:

X helps you to do a, b, c, and more

The writer knows what's left out. But in most cases, the reader is unaware of the remainder.?

4. Relying on features to sell a product

Product X has a built-in AI that helps it to predict the potential of an article to convert.?

That may be true. But anyone that reads this will have follow-up questions in their minds:

• Exactly how does it do that??
• How does the feature benefit them?

As a writer, you may already know the answer. Besides, you’ve spent countless hours researching the product and taking product demos. But we often forget that the reader doesn’t.?

The reader is only concerned about the problem on their hands. And mentioning some random features without showing how it solves their problem, does no good.

How to defeat the curse of knowledge

So, how can you defeat the curse of knowledge? Let’s explore how.

Acknowledge it exists.

Don't discount its existence. That makes it easier to avoid.?

However, when ignorance festers, you’d neither avoid nor develop a plan to combat it.

Have a clear vision.

When you write an article, don't do so in a vacuum. Have a goal.

Your goal should be the information you wish to pass across. It's the lesson/s you want readers to gain after reading your piece. This keeps you in check as you write.

In my case, I hope you will understand what the curse of knowledge is, and how to avoid it by the time you're done reading this article.

So, I'm consciously pruning out anything that does not fulfill this objective, giving succinct explanations, and using analogies where I can in a bid to achieve this.

Know the topic.

Sounds ironic since I'm writing about the curse of knowledge, right? True.?

But, you must know the topic really well to break it down fully without relying on convoluted phrases, jargon, or abstract sentences (sentences that have no meaning) to pass your message across.

It was Einstein who said:

“If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t understand it well enough”

So, take your time. Spend hours - if need be - to understand the topic completely. You can start with Google SERPs. But don’t stop there.??

Take a course, watch a Youtube video, Interview SMEs, or listen to a podcast. You'll get to understand the topic better and land a differentiated article that your audience can grasp easily.

Don't just know the topic. Know your audience.

Now that you know the topic, take the time to research and know your audience really well.?

As it relates to the curse of knowledge, your focus should be on knowing their current awareness level of the topic.?

This way, you won’t dumb down the language in your article in a bid to avoid the curse of knowledge. Instead, you’d write in a way that they would understand which may mean using jargon here and there. Or using none at all.

For instance, if you were writing to content marketing folks, it’s okay to use jargon like BOFU, TOFU, content-led, and product-led. But you can’t do that if you were writing to an engineering audience for instance.

As you write, imagine that one of your prospective readers is sitting right across from you and has just finished complaining to you about the problem they're facing. Then write to solve the problem, and make it stupidly simple in relation to their awareness level.

Use analogies and examples.

Analogies make complex ideas easy to understand.??

They're like footbridges —- they connect an unrelated concept known to your readers to the complex topic you're discussing.

For example, you could use the analogy of buying a car when explaining how to choose a college to a student, saying that with both you need to think about cost and value.

Before you decide on an analogy, ensure that your readers are aware and can relate to it. It’s of no use trying to explain a concept to art nerds using chemistry.?

To discover an analogy that’s most appropriate for your audience pool, consult the audience persona you developed earlier. Then, use the details and search for an analogy that they can relate to.

Furthermore, you must endeavor to read widely as a writer. You never know when you'll encounter something you’ll use for an analogy, later on.

Use a story to simplify complex concepts

Everyone loves a good old story. Our brains are naturally conditioned to easily comprehend and remember whatever is taught in a story.?

To this day, I still remember the stories told to me decades ago. But I can’t say the same for the complex chemistry equations I learned a few years ago.

When using stories in articles, try to shorten the revelatory time. Readers may not have the patience to wade through the lengthy introduction, climax, before getting to the conclusion. They’d skip it.

Preferably, lead with the climax (the high point of the story). Then proceed to divulge the remaining part of the story later. That way, you’ll carry along even those who lack patience.

Here’s what I mean:

The writer starts with the climax of the story — the whopping number of sign-ups Hotmail got in two and a half years. Then the rest of the story describes the how.

Encourage questions from your readers

Despite putting in your best to write simply, your readers might have one question or the other.

So, take your time to answer every query you get from readers of your blog posts, newsletter, and social media posts as succinctly as you can.?

In fact, encourage them to reply with their questions.

You can use this as an opportunity to cover whatever you might have missed, and get the views of your readers.

Watch out for abstract sentences when editing

Abstract sentences are very difficult to understand. Worse still, they obscure the meaning of the surrounding sentences.

When editing, look out for any sentence that:

• Doesn't contribute to passing information
• Is difficult to understand. Especially those long winded sentences with many 4-syllable words?
• Gives incomplete information. For instance, sentences that cover the “what”, but leave out the “why” and “how”.?

Cut out sentences in number 1. Simplify sentences that fall into number 2.?

And complete the information missing in sentences that fall under number 3. It's better to give too much than to leave your readers hanging and searching for answers.

Remember, the best writers are ruthless editors.

Seek third-party opinion from someone outside your professional circle

It can be difficult to know when you’re straying out of the knowledge scope of your audience, especially if you’re knowledgeable on the topic.

So, it’s safer to seek an opinion from a third party such as an editor or SME.?

Even better, you could consult someone who has a similar knowledge scope of your topic to your target audience. If they can’t understand what you’re writing, neither will your audience.

Brush up on your baseline knowledge before interviewing SMEs.

SMEs have the knowledge in their heads. But breaking it down into smaller bits that “lay people” can understand is most often a challenge.?

Therefore, the tips and strategies they share during an interview session may be laden with complex words, abstract ideas, and poor analogies. And you’d lose the reader’s attention if you use them.?

So, what should you do??

Don’t approach SME interview sessions with a tabula rasa (clean slate). Rather, spend time getting at least a baseline understanding of the topic.

For instance, if you are interviewing an expert for an article on technical SEO, you must have a basic knowledge of on-page SEO. That way, you can nudge them to give a simpler explanation and unearth anecdotes and analogies you never thought of.

In closing

As long as communication exists, the curse of knowledge is an ever-present possibility.

Now, it's up to you to recognize that it exists, and do all you can to avoid it because it's your responsibility to promise to offer help to your readers. And that's impossible if they can't understand what you write