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The Curse of Knowledge

Charlotte Booth • 23 February 2021

Can too much knowledge be a curse?


Most of us pride ourselves in the knowledge we have about our business, industry or a specific subject. Our knowledge can be the result of many years of studying, hours and hours of practical experience as well as the motivation to increase the knowledge we have. 

Knowledge is a wonderful thing - except when you are writing for non-experts. 

Have you ever read an article which from the title sounds fascinating but then whilst reading you've been so bamboozled by the jargon, over-complicated descriptions and industry specific vocabulary that you stopped reading? This can makes the reader feel inadequate, right? Like they're not bright enough to understand such a complex subject.

The problem in these cases can often be attributed to the author, because they are not writing for the specific audience they are aiming their article at. 

When writing for a non-expert audience (and in business marketing, this is most of the time) you need to consider a few key points. 

• What does the audience already know? 
• What do they need to know about the topic in question? 
• What can you leave out?

The more knowledgeable you are the harder these questions are to answer. But, for example, there is little point peppering your text with jargon (DPLs, NIBs, Splash) if the audience has no idea what they mean, so you need to carefully evaluate to what extent you need to expand and explain. 

Essentially the curse of knowledge is not being able to remember or even imagine not knowing the information you have (imagine not knowing the song Happy Birthday). This can be a massive problem when writing for your business. 

If you 'forget' that your audience may not understand industry jargon you may instantly isolate them. 

In the first scene of the IT Crowd we have a wonderful example of this. 

Roy answers the phone with "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" whereas Moss asks "Have you tried forcing an unexpected reboot?" - it's not surprising the hapless user eventually hangs up on Moss.

So, what is the answer to this curse? 

 The main answer is to consider your audience carefully, and then consider the language you are using and whether it is industry specific or not and more importantly aimed at the person you are trying to reach. If you're not sure ask someone - your husband, wife, best friend, "would you know what SSL is?" If they don't know and they are in your target market group then consider an explanation. 

Alternatively, you could send any finished blogs/articles to me providing me with an idea of who it's aimed at and I can highlight those bits which don't make sense or could do with clarifying. This curse is not terminal it just needs a bit of careful management.

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