The Curse of Expertise

We tend to assume that the smartest people—the domain experts, the senior engineers, the seasoned leaders—are naturally the best ones to explain how things work. They’re the ones who know the system inside and out. But here’s the paradox: often, the more someone knows, the harder it becomes for them to communicate clearly with those who know less. This is the “curse of expertise,” also known as the curse of knowledge—a cognitive bias where experts unconsciously assume that others have the same background knowledge they do.

This invisible barrier leads to incomplete instructions, confusing designs, and misaligned teams. Whether it’s a poorly written how-to guide, a user interface that assumes too much, or a leader’s message that goes over everyone’s head, the pattern is the same: clarity gets lost because the expert can’t un-know what they know.

Technical Writing and the Gap Between Expert and User

Let’s start with documentation—manuals, help articles, onboarding instructions, API guides. You’d think that the best person to write technical documentation would be the person who built the thing. But that’s often a mistake.

Subject matter experts (SMEs) are immersed in their systems. They understand not just the “what,” but the “why” behind each function. But when they sit down to write instructions, they often skip steps that seem “obvious” to them. They forget what it’s like to be new. They might use acronyms without defining them, or write steps like “configure the interface” without explaining what that even means in context.

It’s not intentional. It’s cognitive bias. Psychologist Steven Pinker calls it “the curse of knowledge,” and it’s well-documented in studies showing that experts routinely overestimate what novices know. They forget how they learned the material in the first place. They compress explanations, abstract the details, and unintentionally leave gaps.

Good technical writing often requires someone who isn’t an expert—someone close enough to the material to understand it, but distant enough to still see what’s confusing. Editors, information designers, and technical communicators fill this gap by constantly asking, “Would this make sense to someone seeing it for the first time?”

UX Design and the Assumption Problem

The curse of expertise isn’t just a writing issue—it shows up all over product and UX design. Developers and designers often assume a user’s intuition will match their own. They bury settings three layers deep in a menu, use jargon in labels, or expect users to understand error codes. They forget that users don’t want to learn the system. They want to use it.

This is why UX research is so critical. Observing real users struggle with what “should be obvious” is often a wake-up call for teams too close to the product. As Jared Spool, a pioneer in usability research, once said, “Design is the rendering of intent”—but users can’t act on intent they don’t understand.

One classic example is the Apple TV remote. Designed with minimalist aesthetics in mind, it’s sleek but famously confusing. Users often can’t tell which side is up, which button does what, or how to navigate. It’s beautiful, yes—but usability suffers because designers, immersed in their vision, failed to consider what a new user might experience. The expertise behind the design actually worked against the clarity of use.

Leadership Communication and the Clarity Trap

The higher you climb in an organization, the more abstract your thinking becomes. Leaders work in strategy, systems, and big ideas. But the people they lead are often closer to execution and need concrete, actionable information. That’s where the curse of expertise shows up again.

A leader might say, “We’re pivoting to a customer-centric operating model.” But to someone in operations or sales, that could mean a dozen different things. Does it mean new KPIs? A reorg? A new CRM? Without translation, the message falls flat—or worse, creates confusion and misalignment.

In leadership communication, clarity is kindness. It means breaking down the big ideas into relatable, grounded language. It means repeating key messages in different formats. It means checking for understanding, not just delivering a message.

Great leaders fight the curse by seeking feedback. They test their messages. They use stories, metaphors, and examples. They ask, “What did you take away from this?” They treat clarity not as an afterthought, but as a core part of their job.

Why the Curse Persists

So why is it so hard for experts to adjust their communication? Because it takes mental effort to simulate what it feels like to not know something. It’s an act of empathy and imagination.

And in fast-paced environments, that effort often feels like a luxury. It’s faster to write “open the config file and edit the settings” than to walk through what a config file is, where to find it, and what editing it safely entails. It’s easier to assume people will “figure it out” than to take the time to test your instructions or redesign your interface.

But this shortcut mindset leads to lost time, user frustration, and organizational drag. The curse of knowledge creates a hidden tax on efficiency.

Breaking the Curse

Here are a few ways to break the curse of expertise across domains:

1. Use the “explain it to a fifth grader” test. If you can’t explain the concept simply, you don’t understand it deeply—or you’re assuming too much.
2. Involve non-experts early. Writers, editors, usability testers, and frontline employees provide the outside perspective you need.
3. Document your assumptions. What are you assuming the audience already knows? Challenge that.
4. Watch someone try to follow your instructions. Nothing reveals gaps like user testing.
5. Separate explanation from execution. Explain why something works before jumping into how to do it. Novices need both.

Being an expert doesn’t automatically make you a good communicator. In fact, it often gets in the way. The more you know, the harder it becomes to see the gaps, to remember the struggle, to slow down and explain.

Whether you’re writing documentation, designing software, or leading people, the curse of expertise is a silent saboteur. But with awareness, humility, and the right feedback loops, it’s one you can beat.

Because knowledge alone doesn’t create clarity. Empathy does.