“Lots of research in economics and psychology shows that when we know something, it becomes hard for us to imagine not knowing it. As a result, we become lousy communicators. Think of a lawyer who can’t give you a straight, comprehensible answer to a legal question. His vast knowledge and experience renders him unable to fathom how little you know. So when he talks to you, he talks in abstractions that you can’t follow. And we’re all like the lawyer in our own domain of expertise.

Here’s the great cruelty of the Curse of Knowledge: The better we get at generating great ideas—new insights and novel solutions—in our field of expertise, the more unnatural it becomes for us to communicate those ideas clearly. That’s why knowledge is a curse. But notice we said “unnatural,” not “impossible.” Experts just need to devote a little time to applying the basic principles of stickiness.

JFK dodged the Curse [with “put a man on the moon in a decade”]. If he’d been a modern-day politician or CEO, he’d probably have said, “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry, using our capacity for technological innovation to build a bridge towards humanity’s future.” That might have set a moon walk back fifteen years.”

Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Yohji Yamamoto’s Autobiography “My Dear Bomb” - $29.00 on Amazon (Photo from LN-CC)

I cannot wait for my copy to arrive. I’ve always said, when I’m 70 I want to be draped in Yohji, smoke and drink coffee all day. And probably take up MMA. (See quote below)

From an interview by Filep Motwary and Yohji Yamamoto for Dapper Dan Magazine

Motwary: Is the Yohji man connected with the martial arts, like you are with karate?

Yamamoto: Imagine you are a 70-year-old man and you get a threat from a young man at the corner of the metro station. Are you going to give him your wallet?
Men should be men forever.