I recently learned about something called “the curse of knowledge.” It basically means that once you know something (a piece of information), it’s difficult to imagine what it’s like to not know it. It’s difficult to imagine how things look to someone who doesn’t already know that information.
This explains why it’s difficult for most people to give good directions - because they already know how to get somewhere. I’ve found that it also explains a lot of things in life, come to think of it.
I figured this out when I realized that it was impossible for me to look at words and not see words. There is no way to remember what it was like not being able to read; those squiggly marks can never look like just squiggly marks again.
I remember the first time someone pointed out the rainbow effect in video pictures. Never again could I turn off that switch in my brain and for almost 20 years I curse the guy who shared that. Ignorance is bliss.
Well…I’d learned that once you open a door to an understanding you can’t close it again, but I have no trouble seeing things as they once were. One reason why I think I would have made a good teacher. (Plus I love kids.)
I think anyone who writes for a living knows this phenomenon well; it underscores the importance of an editor who can provide a fresh, neutral perspective.
Oh, yeah. Optical illusions do it for me. Once you can see both the woman at the mirror and the skull, you can’t unsee them.
I once mentioned to my eighth grade students that when I read, after the first few sentences, I don’t see words on a page anymore, I have a movie running in my head. Only one of the students knew what I was talking about. That’s a curse of knowledge that I’ve lost - the struggle to translate the squiggly marks on a page into words and words into knowledge.
I agree, and I think it is often a matter of finding something similar where you’re still without knowledge.
In this example, returning to the pre-knowledge stage is easy; just look at any foreign script. Or just repeat a word so often to yourself that it becomes weird and new again.
This concept was brought home to me in spades a couple of years ago. I was trying to explain something to a friend and she was Just. Not. Getting it. The more I tried to explain, the more confused she got. And the angrier I got.
I had to remember that not everyone geeked out on the stuff that I did when I was 12.
Most of the time, when I’m teaching a patient about high blood pressure, I can start with, “so blood pressure pills work a couple of different ways. Some make your blood vessels open more…” But then I see the glazed look in some eyes, and realize not everyone knows what blood vessels are. Or that blood moves in them. And I’ve got to take about 3 steps back and start with what is, to me, really *really *basic anatomy.
Or Nutrition. Protein/Carb/Fats…there are grown adults out there that don’t know that meat is somehow fundamentally different from potato chips, and that this information can be useful to them in improving their diet. I mean, really?! I can understand being overwhelmed, or just not giving a shit, or being confused by conflicting recommendations, but how do you get to be a grown person in our culture and not know what vegetables are, and that milk isn’t one? True story. Sometimes I think they’re just fucking with me…
I had a weird moment for this phenomenon. I walked into the stairwell at work and noticed that there was a long, thin, vertical rectangle painted on the wall. I looked at it for a second and coudn’t think why it was painted there. It wasn’t until I went up a floor and saw a “2” painted on the wall in the same spot that I realized that I had been looking a san-serif “1.” It really was just a rectangle. I saw it purely for the shape and so didn’t see it as a symbol with meaning.
I find where this is truly a curse for me is personal finance and saving for retirement. Once I got old enough to care about such things, I learned what I should have banked so I won’t be broke when I’m old. Since then I have always had anxiety about money - I just can’t let it go - ever.
Nope; doesn’t work. Once you know how to read, you know that those squiggly marks are words. It’s impossible to remember the time that they just looked like squiggles, devoid of meaning or intent.
