The Curse of Knowledge

The curse of knowledge is something that Socrates talked of often. 

Get someone on their specialist subject and they will seem knowledgable and intelligent.

Move them off their specialist subject and the curse of knowledge will arise. 

They will begin to spout the same, commonly held opinions of their peers. 

The habit that we create, when we have so many answers in our area of expertise, is the habit of being right or indeed believing we are right. 

As Socrates once said: 

“The only true knowledge is knowing you know nothing”. 

This might not seem so bad but it is the curse of knowledge that brings about our limitations, and our eventual redundancy. 

The more open we are to listen, the more open we are to saying “I don’t know”, the faster we are ultimately able to progress. 

From the perspective of the brain, children learn no faster than adults but in reality they do, because children are yet to construct their “curse of knowledge” wall. 

Learn to break down that wall. 

Ed Ley

P.S. Do you know someone who seems to know everything ???