The Expert's Curse

The flip side of Dunning-Kruger is equally important. Experts tend to underestimate their abilities because they assume others share their knowledge. A chess grandmaster finds basic openings "obvious" and cannot fathom that beginners struggle with them.

The curse has real costs. Experts write documentation that assumes too much. Teachers skip steps that feel trivial to them but are opaque to students.

The fix is deliberate translation. Before explaining something, name the prerequisite knowledge out loud: "This assumes you already know X." If your listener does not, back up.