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I think this is a good description of the state of the US presidential campaigning currently: "... sales agents who are better informed about their products ma

I think this is a good description of the state of the US presidential campaigning currently: "... sales agents who are better informed about their products may, in fact, be at a disadvantage against other, less-informed agents when selling their products. The reason is said to be that better-informed agents fail to ignore the privileged knowledge that they possess and are thus "cursed" and unable to sell their products at a value that more naïve agents would deem acceptable"

galaxyLogic 6y ago
Another application of Curse of Knowledge of interest to programmers from the article: "... programmer fails to comment their code because it seems obvious at the time they write it. But a few months later they may have no idea why the code exists. " I often experience something like that but not like I didn't write the comments. I wrote the comments but a few months later I find it hard to understand what they are about.
- ksaj 6y ago
  It also applies to magicians and mentalists, but in a slightly different way. A magician hopeful might watch a magic show and be completely overwhelmed. Eventually they learn their first secrets, and there is a sudden case of "Oh, really? That's it?" and something they were previously enthralled with is now a bit of a bummer. Magic shows become more of a technical puzzle to work out, instead of the spectator amusement they were before learning the secrets. For a while, they forget what it actually was about magic or mentalism that got them so excited. And it is so easy to forget that YOU know the secret, but your audience doesn't. The methods may very well be not so dazzling when you know them, but it's the performance that makes it magical in the first place. And that's where the fun is for the magician or mentalist, and why it's important to not give away their secrets (unless you're like Penn and Teller, where sometimes the secret IS the dazzling part!). Knowledge, to an audience, can immediately make the show very uninteresting. But as the performer, you have to remember they don't have the knowledge you have.
  - galaxyLogic 6y ago
    Talking about magic, Arthur C Clarke put it well: http://lab.cccb.org/en/arthur-c-clarke-any-sufficiently-advanced-technology-is-indistinguishable-from-magic/ http://lab.cccb.org/en/arthur-c-clarke-any-sufficiently-adva... What you are saying is "Any Magic is just Sufficiently Advanced Technology" which I guess is the corollary :-)

galaxyLogic 6y ago

Another application of Curse of Knowledge of interest to programmers from the article: "... programmer fails to comment their code because it seems obvious at the time they write it. But a few months later they may have no idea why the code exists. " I often experience something like that but not like I didn't write the comments. I wrote the comments but a few months later I find it hard to understand what they are about.

ksaj 6y ago
It also applies to magicians and mentalists, but in a slightly different way. A magician hopeful might watch a magic show and be completely overwhelmed. Eventually they learn their first secrets, and there is a sudden case of "Oh, really? That's it?" and something they were previously enthralled with is now a bit of a bummer. Magic shows become more of a technical puzzle to work out, instead of the spectator amusement they were before learning the secrets. For a while, they forget what it actually was about magic or mentalism that got them so excited. And it is so easy to forget that YOU know the secret, but your audience doesn't. The methods may very well be not so dazzling when you know them, but it's the performance that makes it magical in the first place. And that's where the fun is for the magician or mentalist, and why it's important to not give away their secrets (unless you're like Penn and Teller, where sometimes the secret IS the dazzling part!). Knowledge, to an audience, can immediately make the show very uninteresting. But as the performer, you have to remember they don't have the knowledge you have.
- galaxyLogic 6y ago
  Talking about magic, Arthur C Clarke put it well: http://lab.cccb.org/en/arthur-c-clarke-any-sufficiently-advanced-technology-is-indistinguishable-from-magic/ http://lab.cccb.org/en/arthur-c-clarke-any-sufficiently-adva... What you are saying is "Any Magic is just Sufficiently Advanced Technology" which I guess is the corollary :-)