The Sense of Style

“The Curse of Knowledge,” the topic of Chapter 3, refers to the difficulty many writers have in “imagining what it is like for someone else not to know something that [they] know” (59). Pinker borrows the term from economic theory, but notes that the tendency is much more pervasive in human interactions: What one person considers obvious and not worth stating often turns out to be crucial information for others. More than that, writers who neglect to provide the necessary context and explanations for their readers may not even know that they are laboring under the curse of knowledge—a circumstance that makes it difficult to overcome. Yet, as Pinker points out, the consequences of the curse can be severe, ranging from everyday frustrations with poorly written instruction manuals and perplexingly designed websites to notable historical events rooted in vague language, such as the 1979 nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island.

To begin to counteract the curse of knowledge, Pinker recommends writers imagine themselves in the mind of a reader who is unfamiliar with the details of the topic. Removing jargon and abbreviations, replacing them with more understandable synonyms, will also make a text more accessible.