The Curse of Knowledge

Amulet of Thoth, the Egyptian god of science and knowledge, represented as an ibis, courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago Do you have the “curse of knowledge”? If you’re reading the Last Word on Nothing—meaning, if you’re a curious, highly literate, super smart person (also beautiful)—you probably do. The curse of knowledge refers to this phenomenon: Once you know something, it’s easy to forget that you used to not know it, and that a lot of other people still don’t. The curse of knowledge (at least how I hear it in my own head) is an ironic term. Imagine someone with their arm over their forehead, looking up in distress: “Woe is me! I am cursed with the burden of knowledge!” The curse of knowledge is sort of the opposite of the Dunning-Kruger effect, the finding that many people who know little about a subject will confidently overestimate how much they know. In the curse of knowledge, you overestimate how much other people know. Recognizing the curse of knowledge is important,…

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