What You Don't Know Can Kill You

On a recent project, I was reminded of "The Curse of Knowledge," the arch-villain of Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick. According to this concept, the more we know about something, the harder it is for us to remember not knowing it.

There's a corollary curse that goes with that:

The more we know about something, the more tempting it is to assume we know more than we do.

You might be surprised to learn how much medical doctors and/or other incredibly bright and useful people know about web architecture and design.

Aircraft engineers are pretty bright people. Lives depend on their competence. They have to know how objects will react to minor tweaks to the thrust, weight, drag, lift, etc, so that when they design an aircraft, none of the millions of things that could go wrong do go wrong, and if something were to go wrong, the plane can still safely land.

They know more about airplanes and flight than pilots.

But would you want an aircraft engineer to land a plane you're in?

If you said, "Only if he also has a pilot's license and is rated for the aircraft he's flying," go to the head of the class.

Likewise, because you know that your customers are 18-34 upper-middle class suburbanites doesn't mean you have even an adequate understanding of how they think or how they behave. Even if you're in the target audience.

In fact, if you are in the target audience you should be especially diligent about testing your assumptions. The Curse of Knowledge does not discriminate because you went to Stanford or MIT.

To borrow the structure of a well-known phrase in the advertising profession, it's safe to say we know only half as much as we think we do. Problem is we don't know which half. - Cam Beck