The Curse of Knowledge

On Scott’s recommendation, I picked up a copy of Mavericks at Work (we seem to have a very similar taste in books), and I really like it so far. The book reminds me of the seminal Good to Great, although it profiles companies from a different angle.

I came across this interesting quote by Dan Wieden in a discussion of the Wieden + Kennedy agency:

“We must begin all things in ignorance. Otherwise we never start at the beginning. We carry so damn much baggage, so many assumptions, habits, prejudices born from experience, that it is very, very difficult to see the world for what it is. And to find our role in it, our true role, not necessarily the one we have been raised and educated to assume.”

This is exactly what Chip and Dan Heath call “The Curse of Knowledge” in their book Made to Stick: it’s the baggage we acquire with experience. Sometimes it pays to unlearn things to gain a fresh perspective. To quote Dan Wieden again:

“Whatever day it is, something in the world changed overnight, and you better figure out what it is and what it means. You have to forget what you just did and what you just learned. You have to walk in stupid every day.”