The Curse of the Expert — The Very Knowing Makes Transmission Hard

"This is common knowledge" — the very moment we feel this, we are in the midst of the Curse of Knowledge. The more deeply one knows something, the harder it is to return to the perspective of the one who does not know — this is the structure of human cognition, not the arrogance of a particular individual. The reviewer, the medical professional, the researcher, the engineer — it is the trap that catches everyone with an area of expertise. This volume assembles, in light of six traditions — Camerer's experimental economics, Pinker on writing, the Heath brothers' SUCCES, Polanyi's tacit knowledge, Zeami's "do not forget the beginner's mind," and Yan Hui's modest learning — the structure of this curse and how to break it.

01The Very Knowing Makes Transmission Fail

When one is a new employee, one does not understand why a senior's finding is so important. Ten years pass, and one is in the position of issuing the finding. At that moment, one is puzzled why the other cannot at once understand the importance of one's finding — this is an asymmetry many professionals experience.

It is not strange at all; this is the essence of the curse of the expert. The moment one acquires knowledge, one can no longer accurately recall what it was like not to have it. So one unconsciously assumes that what is obvious to oneself is obvious to the other as well. In the field of regulatory review, the moment the articles of the Pharmaceutical Act, the operation of the production guidelines, the hierarchy of risk — these become "common sense" to oneself, how complex they are for someone reading them for the first time becomes invisible. What this volume treats is the structure of that blind spot.

02Camerer, Loewenstein & Weber, "the Curse of Knowledge" — The 1989 Economic Experiment

The one who rigorously formalised the concept of "Curse of Knowledge" is the 1989 paper by the American economists Colin Camerer (1959–), George Loewenstein, and Martin Weber. In economic-forecasting experiments, they showed that participants with insider information are less accurate at predicting the judgements of others who do not have that information.

"Subjects with more information tend systematically to overestimate the judgement of others who do not share that information. Asymmetry of information generates a cognitive bias on the side that holds the information." — paraphrase of Camerer, Loewenstein & Weber, "The Curse of Knowledge in Economic Settings" (1989)

What Camerer and colleagues found is the asymmetry that the side that holds knowledge cannot predict the judgement of the side that does not. This is not a matter of information but of the structure of cognition. When a reviewer feels "the necessity of this correction is obvious," that obviousness is an obviousness constructed within oneself, not an obviousness reconstructed within the other. Between the two, an information bridge for reconstruction is required.

03Steven Pinker — "the Identity of the Difficulty of Writing Is the Curse of the Expert"

The American cognitive psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker (1954–), in The Sense of Style (2014), thoroughly analysed why writing by experts is hard to read. His conclusion is clear.

"The main cause of bad writing is not the writer's malice or laziness but the curse of knowledge. The writer unconsciously assumes that the reader knows what the writer knows. So the writer omits indispensable context, does not explain technical terms, and leaps to conclusions without building the bridges of logic." — paraphrase of Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style (2014)

Pinker's implication neither defends nor condemns the experts who write badly. The essence of bad writing is rooted not in the writer's ability but in the structure of cognition. To improve bad writing, then, requires not techniques of writing but the discipline of continually being aware that "the reader is in a different knowledge state from me."

In the pharmaceutical field, when one writes correction requests, SOPs, or explanatory materials, Pinker's question can be applied. "Among the premises I take for granted in this text, which would the other not take for granted?" — asking this even once changes how the writing reaches.

04The Heath Brothers' "SUCCES" — Six Principles of Transmission That Reaches

The American brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath, in Made to Stick (2007), systematised six principles of "sticky" messages that go beyond the curse of the expert. Their first letters spell SUCCES.

What the Heath brothers show is the fact that to go beyond the curse of the expert one needs to design the way of telling as a technique. The six principles of SUCCES can be used as a checklist for that design. In the pharmaceutical field, before writing a correction request, merely inspecting "S (have I distilled to one core?)"; "C (have I fixed with a concrete example?)"; "S (have I composed it as story?)" changes the quality of transmission.

05Polanyi's "Tacit Knowledge" — The Domain of Expert Knowledge That Cannot Be Verbalised

The Hungarian-British philosopher of science Michael Polanyi (1891–1976), in The Tacit Dimension (1966), put forward a fundamental question on the essence of knowledge.

"We can know more than we can tell. Much of the expert's judgement is supported by tacit knowledge that is not verbalised." — Michael Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (1966)

What Polanyi points out is the fact that the core of expert knowledge often cannot be verbalised. The moment a reviewer intuits "something is off," that intuition is the crystallisation of years to decades of experience, but its content is hard to verbalise fully. The artisan's hand movement, the physician's clinical judgement, the cook's seasoning — all have the same structure.

The existence of tacit knowledge makes the curse of the expert even harder. How does one convey to others knowledge that cannot be verbalised? Polanyi's own answer was "the sharing of experience" and the design of places that bridge the knowledge. In the pharmaceutical field, when training a new colleague, there is a quality of judgement that SOPs and documents alone cannot convey. It can only be conveyed in the time of "sitting beside and looking together" — Polanyi's wisdom backs the essence of this kind of mentoring as epistemology.

06Zeami's "Do Not Forget the Beginner's Mind" — Preserving the Beginner's Mind Even After Knowing

From the Eastern lineage, the most practical answer to the curse of the expert. Zeami, in Kakyō (1424), left "do not forget the beginner's mind" (shoshin wasuru bekarazu) as a foundational discipline of the way of art. "Shoshin" is often read as "the first resolution," but Zeami's original meaning is different.

"Shoshin" is the "new unfamiliarity" encountered at each stage. "Do not forget the shoshin of each time" — the shoshin of youth, of middle age, of old age — to remember each is the core of the way of art.
— gist of Zeami, Kakyō (1424), "Shoshin Fukabō"

Zeami's "shoshin" holds the key to going beyond the curse of the expert. The discipline, even after acquiring knowledge, of remembering the "new unfamiliarity" of that stage. The moment one feels "I have entirely come to know," one loses the sense of having been unfamiliar. The one who has lost it can no longer see the struggle of the beginner. The one who remembers can reconstruct from the beginner's perspective.

The thought of "shoshin," influenced by Zen master Dōgen (1200–1253), reached, through Zeami, the hidden foundation of contemporary professional education. In the pharmaceutical field, when a veteran teaches a new colleague, whether one can remember one's own shoshin — the bewilderment of reading that article for the first time, the anxiety of facing that judgement for the first time — decides the quality of teaching.

07Yan Hui — The Modesty of Learning as Foundation

One more from the East. The foremost disciple of Confucius, Yan Hui (Yan Yuan, 521–490 BCE), is depicted in the Analects as the embodiment of the modesty of learning.

The Master said: As for Hui, his heart did not turn from benevolence for three months. The rest, no more than a day, or a month, will reach it.
— Analects, "Yong Ye"

Among his disciples, Confucius loved Yan Hui above all. One reason was Yan Hui's modesty. Only the one who can continue to think "I am not yet complete" can continue to learn. The moment one feels "I have already understood," learning stops, and the quality of teaching others drops at the same time.

Yan Hui's modesty points, in different words, to the same place as Polanyi's tacit knowledge and Zeami's shoshin. Only the one who continues to be conscious of the limits of one's own knowledge can convey it to others. In the pharmaceutical field, those who can acknowledge about their own area "there are parts I still do not entirely understand" can, when teaching others, respect the other's unfamiliarity. Those who feel "I already understand entirely" frequently make light of the other's unfamiliarity.

08The Reverse of the Curse — The Expert as Translator

Once the curse of the expert is correctly understood, a redefinition of the role of the expert itself comes into view. The expert must not only be a holder of knowledge but also a translator of knowledge.

"The social role of the expert is to translate the expert knowledge one holds into the language of others who do not. The expert who cannot translate, though a holder of knowledge, cannot serve society." — gist from empirical observations repeatedly argued in epistemology and science communication studies

Acknowledging this, every argument of this volume appears in a new light. For the reviewer, holding expert knowledge is a necessary condition of the work but not sufficient. Being able to translate expert knowledge into the world of those with different languages — requester, executive, regulator — is the completed form of the expert. Pinker's writing theory, the Heath brothers' SUCCES, Polanyi's tacit-knowledge transmission, Zeami's shoshin, Yan Hui's modesty — all illuminate this practice of "translation" from different angles.

09The Curse of the Expert in the Pharmaceutical Field

Let us bring it down to the field. Typical scenes of the expert's curse the reviewer meets daily.

10Four Practices for Conveying Expert Knowledge

To bring the same place to which the six traditions pointed down into daily practice, four practices are set here.

The very knowing makes transmission hard. This is the structure of human cognition, not the arrogance of a particular individual. Camerer, Pinker, the Heath brothers, Polanyi, Zeami, Yan Hui — six traditions pointed, in different words, to the same place. The curse of the expert cannot be erased, but it can be corrected by design. The expert's role is not the holding of knowledge but the translation of knowledge — this very perspective is the starting point of every practice.

"This is common knowledge" — the moment you feel this, ask again. "For whom, since when, did this become common knowledge?" The moment of asking releases the curse of the expert by one step.