The thought that knowing more about a particular subject could actually hurt you doesn’t seem to make sense at first glance. Shouldn’t be an expert on a subject mean that you know more than the beginning sitting beside you? Not always.
Years ago, an experiment was developed consisting of a “tapper” and a “listener” where the tapper was instructed to tap out well-known songs like Happy Birthday. Then, the listener was to guess what they were tapping. Listener’s only guessed the correct song 2.5% of the time! The twist? The tapper’s thought their listening partners would guess the correct tune 50% of the time. They were 20x off the mark!
Where I see this come up often is either when people are training someone or when they are looking to provide directions about an objective and how to acheive it.
When training, it can be very difficult to possess the ability to translate your understanding and expertise to your student. Even Einstein had trouble with this. It’s hard to put yourself in their shoes. What do they know? What do they not know? Are you bringing any bias to this? Were there building blocks that were missed? The list can go on.
We also see trouble arise when leaders who are removed from the “front lines” provide vague direction and strategy to their teams, assuming they have the necessary background and acumen to accomplish what they are looking to solve. Questions about the budget, timelines, who, priority, has this been attempted before, do my colleagues know about this, do other departments know etc. can all be glazed over by the manager.
A way to get around this is by providing concrete language and storytelling. Concrete and intentionally specific language forces the teacher or manager to work hard to speak in a clear way where guidance or instruction cannot be misconstrued. Stories are a powerful way to engage the employee or student which can allow them to create connections and examples to the subject you are discussing.
Now the challenge is figuring out in the moment when I’m guilty of the curse of knowledge.