Explainer Tip: Remember the Curse of Knowledge

The following post is a part of a series called "Explainer Tips" where we share lessons we've learned in crafting explanations.

One of the books that I read just before creating our first videos was Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.  More than almost any other, this book helped me see new opportunities to present ideas in a unique way.  One idea from the book really stands out - it's The Curse of Knowledge <insert scary music.>

We've all experienced it - in talking to a doctor, an engineer or academic, we get lost. Despite their best efforts, they explain a topic using words and examples that don't make sense to a beginner. These people are suffering from the Curse.

The idea behind the curse of knowledge is that the more we know about something, the harder it is for us to explain it to someone who knows nothing.  We have a hard time being able to imagine what it's like not to know.  For example, think about a lawyer who spent his life reading and writing legal documents, talking to lawyers all day every day, etc.  When you ask this lawyer about tort reform, you're likely to get an explanation that confuses you more. This person knows too much to answer your question in a language you understand.

We're all guilty of having the curse.  We all have something in our life that we know very well - perhaps too well to explain easily.  The key is know that the curse exists.  To be able to recognize the challenge before you. Here's how:

Consider every word. Sometimes a word that is completely natural to you can doom an explanation.  For example, let's say you're a financial planner and you sit down with a young couple and they seem to get everything you're saying.  Then you mention "amortization" as if it were any other word.  You use it every day and the people around you do too.  It may seem that amortization is perfectly normal.  But it's not - their eyes glaze over and the explanation takes a turn for the worst.  You have the curse.

The Remedy

Part of the problem with the curse of knowledge is that we assume too much.  We make assumptions about what people do and don't know.  The stronger the curse, the easier it is to assume. To get around the curse, you can either start with the basics, or get a feeling from your audience about what they know.  Don't assume they speak your language or have your perspective.  If explanation is your goal, impressing them with big words and details are going to work against you.  Your time is better spent accounting for their level of understanding and their context.

Here's a great interview with the Heath brothers by Guy Kawasaki from 2007.

Previous Explainer Tips:

Make People Care

Stop Talking About Technology

Next Up:  Put the WHY Before the HOW

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Explainer Tip: Stop Talking About Technology

The following post is a part of a series called "Explainer Tips" where we share lessons we've learned in crafting explanations.

You likely have friends and family members who consider themselves non-technical.  When discussion turns to anything related to computer, they throw up their hands and say "I just don't get tech stuff!"  The truth is, this is the vast majority of people.  And it's completely understandable why they feel this way. Technology can be very intimidating and many of the most popular tools are poorly designed for a new user.

But it's not just technology - it's how we talk about technology.  The most simple and user friendly tools can sound intimidating if we insist on using terms like XML, extranet, APIs, etc.  There is no end to confusing technology language.

The next time a novice asks you about technology, here are questions I want you to ask yourself: 

• How can I explain this without talking about technology?
• Can I use a real-world example to explain this instead of the actual technology?
• What is this person likely to understand that I can use as a comparison?

A classic example is email.  Let's say your long lost uncle emerges from the woods and says "What's email?"  You have a choice: You can tell him about computers, SMTP, domains and headers or think of something that he already understands, like the Postal Service. To make it easy for your uncle, forget technology and start by talking about snail mail.  Establish the value of being able to communicate written messages over long distance.  Talk about using pens and typewriters.  Talk about how long it takes and why it's painful. He will get it.  Then, the jump to technology is easier.  Email is the same as sending a letter but more efficient because we have computers instead of pens and typewriters.

By taking technology out of the picture in the beginning and speaking in recognizable terms, you can prevent your audience from throwing up their hands and saying "I don't get technology!"  Instead, you're offering an invitation - an introduction to the subject that speaks in their language and lives in their world.

Other Explainer Tips:

Make People Care

Remember the Curse of Knowledge

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Explainer Tip: Make People Care

The following post is a part of a series called "Explainer Tips" where we share lessons we've learned in crafting explanations.

Looking back on my education, one thing becomes clear: I was a not a good math student. What I've learned since then, is that I had the potential to enjoy math, but there was a mismatch between the way I needed to learn and the way I was taught. I wrote about this previously in a post called "Talkin Bout My Education." Math turned me off because it seemed like memorization and formulas with no context. I had a hard time seeing the big picture. Had someone been able to help me care about math, to see why it mattered, I might not have recurring math-related dreams to this day.

This brings us to one of the big things we've learned: Explanations should make the audience care. Without this focus, an explanation is more likely to fall on deaf or daydreaming ears. In my case, math classes seem to drone on and on because I never fully understood why it mattered.

When it comes to your explanations, remember to spend time on building context. Early on, give the audience a way to see why their time is well-spent listening to your points. If you go too quickly to the how-tos and click-heres, you're likely to lose some people.

Of course, we're believers that brevity is important as well. There's a balance - you may not be able to get into as many details if you focus on context. From our perspective - context wins. Here's why: making people care is the hard part.  Time spent on making people care creates motivation that can last long after the explanation is over.  Once someone believes that the subject matters to them, they're more likely to listen to the explanation and go looking for details.  And that's what making people care is all about - helping people develop a new interest.

So, how do you make someone care? Future posts in this series will help to answer this question - it's one of the biggest. For now, I'll start with this tip:

Make a connection to a real world problem.  For example, to explain a new mobile phone service, don't start with features or shortcuts. Instead, tell a story about a real world problem that everyday people experience.  For example, you could start with "If you take the bus, you know how frustrating it can be. You never know when it will arrive." These words say nothing about a mobile phone, features or brands. Your introduction is focused on the context and the problem.  By making statements that reflect real-world problems, the audience can quickly say "I know that feeling!" Helping them with this realization is the goal.

This way, your explanation has a hook - something that grabs the attention of the audience and helps them feel that the explanation could be worth their time.  And ultimately, that's the value proposition - spend time with this explanation and you'll learn about something that applies to your life.

Other Explainer Tips:

Stop Talking About Technology

Remember the Curse of Knowledge

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Experiments With The New @CommonCraft Twitter Account

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Good Explanations Are Not About You

Explainist (yay! they're back) has a new post about Explanatory Filenames and how to think about the person on the other end. Quote:

But think about the guy on the other end who receives proposals from 10
different candidates on the deadline day, all with the same filename.
The first thing he has to do is rename each of them. If you’re thinking
about your audience, you’d save the proposal with your company’s name
in the filename — e.g. TomCo-Annihilatrix_Proposal.pdf.

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What A New Dentist Taught Me About Explanation

Over my life as a dental patient, dentists have told me to pay close attention to brushing the back of my bottom front teeth. Unfortunately, this piece of professional advice had a hard time getting into my daily routine.  That changed recently - I'm now much more likely to brush these teeth - and it's because a new dentist took an extra 30 seconds to explain something important - why.

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Lessons in Starting Over

The last few weeks have been both frustrating and enlightening here at Common Craft headquarters. We're in the middle of an ambitious production schedule that has us working on two new series of videos that will appear on the Common Craft Show and Store.  There are a lot of balls in the air - multiple scripts, storyboards and productions.  It's a lot to manage.

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Being Lightweight: Business Design

This is the third in a series of posts about Being Lightweight.  The first two were about Working with Clients and Tools We Use.

We are lucky to have a product that people like. Our challenge is to experiment and find the best ways to build a business around this product. To be successful we need the business to be profitable, but also work within the life we want to live.

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Being Lightweight: Tools We Use

This is the second in a series of posts about being lightweight.  Our first was focused on working with clients and this installment is all about tools we use.

Tools, or the the wrong tools, become a risk when they create unnecessary drag in every day work. Often, we've found ourselves wondering if we're using a sledgehammer to drive a nail.  If so, we look for alternatives.  

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Being Lightweight: Working with Clients

It's a question we ask each other all the time - what is the most lightweight way we can do this?

We are a small company who is trying to do big things. In order to be
successful, we need to reduce drag - to remove the processes,
bureaucracies and commitments that slow us down and don't pay off. 

Today we're kicking off a series of posts called "Being Lightweight" that will relate what lightweight means to us and hopefully help you think differently about how you focus your attention.

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