Episode Details

Why is it so difficult to explain something that seems perfectly clear in your own head? This video explores the curse of knowledge and how expertise, difficult writing, and complicated language can make intelligent ideas harder to communicate.

Uploaded 10-08-26

#Howtoreadabook #sokalhoax #curseofknowledge

Further reading
Adler, M. J., and Van Doren, C. (1972). How to read a book (Rev. and updated ed.). Simon and Schuster.

Camerer, C., Loewenstein, G., and Weber, M. (1989). The curse of knowledge in economic settings: An experimental analysis. Journal of Political Economy, 97(5), 1232–1254.

Heath, C., and Heath, D. (2007). Made to stick: Why some ideas survive and others die. Random House.

Hotchner, A. E. (1966). Papa Hemingway: A personal memoir. Random House.

LaBerge, D., and Samuels, S. J. (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6(2), 293–323.

Newton, E. L. (1990). The rocky road from actions to intentions [Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University].

Oppenheimer, D. M. (2006). Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20(2), 139–156.

Pinker, S. (2014). The sense of style: The thinking person’s guide to writing in the 21st century. Viking.

Rawls, J. (1999). A theory of justice (Rev. ed.). Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Sokal, A. D. (1996b). Transgressing the boundaries: Toward a transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity. Social Text, 46/47, 217–252.

Tullis, J. G., and Feder, B. (2023). The “curse of knowledge” when predicting others’ knowledge. Memory and Cognition, 51(5), 1214–1234.



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