> [!tldr] Once you know something well, it's hard to imagine not knowing it Once you know enough, it becomes harder to remember what it's like to *not* know those things. In so doing, you can start to become *less able to communicate effectively* with people who aren't as in-depth as you in your domain. > [!example] > If you're a [[BPMN]] expert, the diagrams say a *ton*. You can encapsulate a whole process perfectly... but then you tend to expect people to be able to understand that encapsulation. I believe myself to be at a near-ideal level of intelligence for handling this. I'm smart enough to have interesting things to say[^1], but dumb enough to remember what it's like to not understand *any of it*. ![[Curse of Knowledge 2026-05-28 10.09.33.excalidraw.svg]] %%[[Curse of Knowledge 2026-05-28 10.09.33.excalidraw.md|🖋 Edit in Excalidraw]]%% I'm self aware enough to realize that line chart says a lot, but wouldn't be appropriate for literally *any* audience. Maybe once my kids are grown up more I'll forget how to talk like someone who doesn't have college degrees. **** # More ## Source - self, but the name was fed to me via LLM [^1]: highly debatable