At work, we spend years honing our technical skills, mastering fundamentals and frameworks, and optimizing our code. But there’s a common trap we can all fall intO
curse of knowledge.
This cognitive bias happens when you’ve worked on something for so long that you forget what it’s like not to know it, leads to poor communication.
I shares a bit of my experience.
Breaking the Curse of Knowledge: Simple Tips
Check Understanding
Don’t assume everyone is on the same page. Check in to see if others have questions or need clarification. What seems obvious to you may not be for them.
People can be in any quadrant:
Explain the “Why” First
Before diving into a solution or technical detail, explain why it's important or why you're suggesting it. It helps others follow along and understand the broader context.
Simplify Your Language
Avoid jargon or overly complex terms unless you’re sure your audience understands. If you need to use them, take a moment to explain.
Be Patient
Give people the space to ask questions and admit when they don’t know something. Encourage a culture where it’s okay to say, “I don’t understand.”
Give Reference: When Understanding Isn’t Critical Right Now
Sometimes, the person you're explaining something to doesn’t need to grasp every detail in the moment. In such cases, it’s often better to provide them with a reference or resource they can review later, on their own time. This way, you can move forward with your discussion without overwhelming them.
When to Give Reference:
Low Urgency: If understanding the concept isn’t essential to the current task, providing a well-sourced reference for later is ideal, allow them to enggage you through other async communcation channel such as chat, PR comments, etc
Complex or Technical Topics: Deep-dive topics often require more time to digest. A reference allows the person to absorb the information at their own pace.
Self-Directed Learning: Some people learn better by doing their own research. By providing resources, you empower them to take control of their learning process.
Example:
In a frontend development meeting, you may introduce a new framework but don’t need everyone to immediately understand its internals. You can say, “Here’s a link to the documentation for further reading. We’ll move on, but feel free to go through it later.”
Try Analogy: When You Need Immediate Understanding
In situations where the other person must understand now, simplifying the concept with an analogy can be extremely effective. Analogies work because they relate the unknown concept to something the person already understands.
When to Try Analogy:
High Urgency: If they need to understand right away to make progress, using an analogy can simplify complex ideas.
Breaking Down Complex Concepts: Analogies make difficult technical subjects more relatable by linking them to everyday experiences.
Engaging the Listener: People are more likely to grasp a new concept if they can relate it to something familiar.
Example:
When explaining how React’s state management works to someone unfamiliar, you could say, “Think of React’s state like the memory of a calculator. It stores the numbers and operations, and when something changes, the display (your UI) updates automatically.”
Though analogy is less accurate, I found this often worked better than giving definition.
here are gist for you
https://gist.github.com/rickvian/54fd86a1439ea81bef1b1ca2ac55bf13
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