Remarkablogger

Have you ever tried to teach Microsoft Windows to a person who knows nothing about computers?

Probably not. Think about it for a moment. Where would you even start? Could you explain why the My Documents folder is on the C drive even though it looks like it’s at the same level as the C drive? Or how someone is supposed to know when they should single click vs. double-click?

If you’ve ever tried to explain or teach something, you have often found yourself frustrated that you couldn’t communicate as clearly as you’d hoped to. Every time you try, and the other person does not yet understand, you begin to grasp that your assumptions are greater you’d realized. Much greater.

It is impossible to not know something once you have learned it. You have passed the point of "know return" (sorry, heh, couldn’t resist).

But those who know often must teach those who don’t. Bit of a problem, don’t you think? The more you know, the harder it is to communicate the basics.

There’s a phrase for this: the curse of knowledge. For many years, I’ve been teaching people–absolute beginners–how to use Microsoft Windows, how to surf the web, how to use Excel, and many other subjects. With all that practice, I’ve become skilled at explaining things in a way that’s easy to understand by beginners.

Yet, even still, the curse of knowledge haunts me. Every time I write a post and I think I’ve written something too simple, I always get a lot of positive feedback.

Beginner’s Mind

There is an Eastern philosophical perception hack called Beginner’s Mind. To cultivate beginner’s mind is to see things anew. To never become jaded. To brand that beginner’s experience into your empathic memory, so you can call it up and relive it at will. This is how I am successful at writing for beginners. It’s an exercise in empathy and understanding.

And tomorrow, I will have a new book for you that I’ve written for people who don’t have a website yet or who do but they feel like they don’t even know what they don’t know about the process of getting a site or hiring a designer.

Stay tuned…

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