When I first started at Google, a team asked me to lead a stats workshop. Basic stuff — standard deviations, t-tests, confidence intervals.

I was thrilled. I love teaching. I love stats. I love teaching about stats.

So I poured hours into prep: digging through old textbooks, mapping out the perfect flow, designing the slides and mini-exercises.

I pictured my colleagues nodding along, soaking it in, maybe even walking out saying, “Wow, that was amazing!”

Instead… crickets.
Confused looks.
A few people clearly checking email.

It wasn’t until months (okay fine, years) later that I realized what went wrong:
I fell into the trap of the curse of knowledge.

The curse of knowledge

It strikes all of us, all the time: it’s when you forget what it’s like to not know what you know.

The more experienced you get, the harder it becomes to think like a beginner. So you explain things in a way that makes perfect sense… to you. But not necessarily to your audience.

That’s what happened in the workshop.
I skipped steps I didn’t realize were steps.
I went too fast.
I didn’t leave space for questions or confusion.

It’s like teaching someone to ride a bike by saying:
“Just keep your balance, pedal, and steer.”

But they’re thinking:
How do I even get started? What if I tip over? How fast should I go?

They’re not ready for the big-picture summary or the advanced lesson. They need the steps that get them there.

Same goes for your charts, insights, and presentations.
If you’ve been neck-deep in the data for weeks, what’s obvious to you might be totally foreign to your audience.

They haven’t seen the raw data.
They haven’t tested five hypotheses.
They’re just seeing this chart, right now, for the first time.

So how do you break the curse?

Break the curse: 5 ways to make your insights actually land

1. Zoom out first

Before diving into a chart or slide, step back and ask:
What would I need to know if I were seeing this for the first time?

Give 1–2 sentences of context before showing any data:

• “We wanted to understand what’s driving churn among new users.”

• “This chart compares sign-up rates across four landing pages we tested.”

2. Simplify the setup

Explain the why before the what.
Why did this analysis matter? What decision did it inform?
Analysts often lead with methods (“We ran a regression…”) when what people want first is meaning (“We found a surprising trend in customer behavior…”).

3. Ditch the jargon

You may love the phrase “significantly negative relationship,” but most people outside your team don’t know what that means (or worse, they think they do, and they’re wrong).

Try this instead:

• “As X increases, Y tends to decrease — and the pattern is unlikely due to chance.”

4. Show, don’t just tell

Don’t just describe what’s happening in the data — help your audience see it.

• If you’re making a comparison, visualize the contrast.

  • Example: Instead of saying “Group A performed better than Group B,” show two bars side by side and say: “Group A outpaced Group B by 15 percentage points — the gap you see here.”

• If you’re describing a trend or shift, use a mini-story or metaphor to make it stick.

  • Example: Instead of saying “Customer churn started slow but then really picked up,” say: “What started as a trickle became a snowball, picking up speed until churn became a real problem.”

5. Test your message

Perhaps the most important tip of all: Before you present or send off the report, do a dry run with someone unfamiliar with the analysis. Ask them to explain it back to you in their own words.

If they can’t, it’s a sign to simplify. If they can, you’re on the right track.

The bottom line

Expertise is valuable, but it can also make you blind to how confusing your message might be to others.

That’s what makes the curse of knowledge so sneaky: you don’t realize it’s gotten you until it’s too late. But if you want your insights to land, you have to slow down and actively guard against it.

Ever experience the curse first hand as well? I’d love to hear about it — just hit reply.

Cheers to breaking the curse,
Morgan

P.S. If this issue resonated, you’ll love the book Made to Stick. It’s all about how to make your ideas clearer and more memorable, including how to beat the curse of knowledge by being concrete and specific. Example: don’t say “movie popcorn contains 37g of saturated fat.” Instead, say it “contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings—combined!” 🫠 )