It's really hard for humans to empathize with what it feels like to not know something they already know. > In a 1990 experiment by a [Stanford University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University) graduate student, Elizabeth Newton, illustrated the curse of knowledge in the results of a simple task. A group of subjects were asked to "tap" out well known songs with their fingers, while another group tried to name the melodies. When the "tappers" were asked to predict how many of the "tapped" songs would be recognized by listeners, they would always overestimate. The curse of knowledge is demonstrated here as the "tappers" are so familiar with what they were tapping that they assumed listeners would easily recognize the tune. A lot of UX bugs, product problems, writing problems, and communication problems boils down to the fact that the authors of the product were suffering from curse of knowledge. Looking at [[Creative Selection, Ken Kocienda]], it's clear that one of Steve Jobs' biggest talents was that he could shake of the curse of knowledge: > Even though he was a high-tech CEO, Steve could put himself in the shoes of customers, people who cared nothing for the ins and outs of the software industry #published 2025-03-01