by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart
Are you familiar with, The Curse of Knowledge?
Here’s how Wikipedia describes it:
“The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, communicating with other individuals, unknowingly assumes the others have the background to understand.”
Put in simpler terms, if I know about something and have known it for a long time, I assume everyone else in the world knows it too.
I was reminded of this a few months ago when a buddy of mine sent me his latest book. I happened to glance at the postage and saw he’d spent $7.85 to send it to me.
“Wow,” I thought. “Why’d he spend so much?”
I (erroneously) thought everyone knew about Media Mail available at any post office. In case you don’t know, sending your books Media Mail is the cheapest way to go. (But I might be knowledge deficient, so if you know a cheaper way, let me know, yes?)
Media Mail is slower, but quite a bit cheaper. My friend could have sent his book for less than half what he paid. For my books, I pay $2.73 to send them anywhere in the United States.
The Greater Lesson
I’ll write more about The Curse of Knowledge in a future column (and the opportunity it provides) but for the moment, suffice it to say we need to be careful when we’re talking to anyone about just about anything, to make sure they understand our lingo.
Why? Because every industry, culture, religion, hobby, has insider knowledge and terminology. And it’s easy to assume everyone inside (and even outside) our circle(s) knows the same things, and uses the same terms we do.
Often they don’t. So keep your eyes open when you’re talking to people. If their eyes start to glaze over and they give you a halfhearted nod, take the time to make sure they understand the nuances of what you’re talking about.
You might end up saving them $5.12 or something much more valuable.
How Do You Stand Up for Yourself When It Means Losing Everything?
Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they’re free from the games played by the corporate world. She’s gotten over her divorce. And while her dad’s recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy.
Then the bomb drops. Her dad was living a secret life and left her mom in massive debt.
As Allison scrambles to help her mom find a way out, she’s given a journal, anonymously, during a visit to her favorite coffee shop. The pressure to rescue her mom mounts, and Allison pours her fears and heartache into the journal.
But then the unexplainable happens. The words in the journal, her words, begin to disappear. And new ones fill the empty spaces—words that force her to look at everything she knows about herself in a new light.
Ignoring those words could cost her everything . . . but so could embracing them.
James L. Rubart is 28 years old, but lives trapped inside an older man’s body. He thinks he’s still young enough to water ski like a madman and dirt bike with his two grown sons. He’s the best-selling, Christy BOOK of the YEAR, CAROL, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels and loves to send readers on journeys they’ll remember months after they finish one of his stories. He’s also a branding expert, audiobook narrator, co-host of the Novel Marketing podcast, and co-founder with his son, Taylor, of the Rubart Writing Academy. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in Washington state.