Breaking the Curse of Knowledge: Why Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication

Understanding doesn’t always mean communicating effectively. You have a choice: become stupid or learn how to overcome the Curse of Knowledge, simplify ideas, and make them stick.

Maybe the little boy is you, when you listened to your teachers and could not understand a word and rather wanted to go home and play video games?

1 How Antoine became stupid

Antoine believed his intelligence was his greatest obstacle to happiness. Tired of feeling out of sync with the world, he embarked on a bizarre journey to simplify his mind. He tried alcohol, therapy, even surgery—all to silence his overthinking and live a more “normal” life.

Antoine is the protagonist of How I Became Stupid by Martin Page. This satire-filled story isn’t just a critique of modern consumerism, but illustrates how over-complication can lead to paralysis. Antoine’s struggle reflects a deeper issue we all face: the Curse of Knowledge.

2 Being simple is difficult

An accurate idea that’s useless remains just that—useless. This is the core of the Curse of Knowledge. As we gain ability, it becomes harder to communicate our insights so others can understand. What’s obvious to us feels obscure to everyone else. Like Antoine, trapped in his hyper-analytical mind, experts and leaders often get stuck, unable to simplify their knowledge into actionable insights.

Made to Stick’s SUCCES principles (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories) rely on clarity, yet the Curse of Knowledge undermines them. It’s the classic “tapper-listener” problem: tappers, who know the song they’re tapping, can’t imagine what it’s like for listeners to not know it. This misalignment crops up everywhere—from CEOs giving instructions to engineers explaining technicalities. The disconnect isn’t mutual. The burden falls on the expert to simplify.

3 How to Break the Curse of Knowledge

You have two choices:

1. Learn Nothing (or Pretend You Don’t Know): While Antoine’s extreme approach isn’t recommended, you can mimic it by actively recalling what it was like not to know something. Step into your audience’s shoes.

2. Transform Your Ideas: Translate complex insights into their simplest form. Don’t assume context—create it.

4 The curse of knowledge affecting your job

Did you ever fail to explain a complex topic to a superior?

Note

The fault lies with the experts that need to come down to the basic level.

At first glance, hierarchy plays a role. The expert can always teach his students. But what about an everyday situation where the expert has to explain to his superior?

As highlighted in The Ferrari’s Go to Disney World, this isn’t about hierarchy. Here, the customer is the novice.

Whether the expert holds a higher or lower position, the challenge remains the same: convey ideas in a way that resonates. The customer might be the novice, but they hold decision-making power.

4.1 Use Simplification to bridge the gap

There are two stages to solving a problem. The answer stage and the telling to others stage.

Most organizations heavily invest in teaching people how to arrive at answers, but teach little how to communicate those answers. Factors that help develop expertise—nuance, depth, and precision—become liabilities in communication. Success isn’t just about finding answers; it’s about telling them in ways others can hear.

Antoine’s first reflex is to just focus on stage 2. As the book shows, he becomes successful but not happy. Somewhere in the middle ground is the key. Antoine’s extreme journey shows a truth: intelligence and insight are insignificant without effective sharing. Simplicity, not complexity, is often the key to success.