The Curse of Knowledge Bogs Down Innovation

Secret of Raising Smart Kids writes ""I have a DVD remote control with 52 buttons on it, and every one of them is there because some engineer along the line knew how to use that button and believed I would want to use it, too," says David Heath, co-author of "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die." The "curse of knowledge," is the paradox that as our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off because the walls of the box we think inside of thicken along with our experience. An article in the NY Times proposes a solution to the curse: bring outsiders with no experience onto teams to keep creativity and innovation on track. When experts have to slow down and go back to basics to bring an outsider up to speed, "it forces them to look at their world differently and, as a result, they come up with new solutions to old problems." Another solution is to force yourself to become a beginner again like making yourself shoot basketball left-handed."

Comments

Is there anything new here?

[Hognoxious]

I thought it was fairly standard when doing usability trials to include a wide range of users, with a wide range of abilities. What's good for the n00b might not be right for a poweruser.

As to self handicapping, we were encouraged do that at judo practice when we were kids - when practicing against a smaller or less experienced opponent, you don't use your best techniques. This cuts both ways, he gets a fair go and you improve your weak areas.

Finally, the reason it has 52 buttons is probably because a competitor's had 51.

Re:Is there anything new here?

[Palpitations]

I thought it was fairly standard when doing usability trials to include a wide range of users, with a wide range of abilities. What's good for the n00b might not be right for a poweruser. Agreed, 100%. At the risk of starting a flame war, the same could be said for almost any user interface - Gnome vs. KDE vs. OS X vs. Windows Vista vs. Windows XP being the most contentious of them here on Slashdot I imagine (listed in alphabetical order to avoid preferential treatment). Some are designed to be used for power users out of the box, some for beginners, but the true strength of an interface is flexibility. Design an interface that works for many people by all means, that's great. What is even better is to let people work out a system that works for them. Don't force the user to adapt to your interface, let the interface adapt to the user in a way that makes sense for them.

Bringing it back to the concept of 52 button remotes, I simply don't think that's needed. Half the number of buttons, provide a more intelligent, context aware system, and I imagine many people would have an easier time using it. Watching many older and/or less tech savvy people using a remote, it seems to me like a large portion of their time is used up staring at the huge array of things sitting in front of them - at least 75% of which don't have anything to do with what they're doing. Programmable touchscreen remotes are a step in the right direction, but without the tactile input it's severely lacking (even if you know the layout, you still need to look down to verify what you're doing).

I believe the largest remote I've had was 50 buttons, and I could use it to do anything I wanted to blindfolded (going as far as changing advanced settings on my receiver, I knew the settings it had and the way it cycled through options). Hell, I've got 40 buttons worth of joystick hooked up to my PC at the moment, and know all of them well. That's easy enough for me. I'm pretty far from the standard user though, and I would never expect someone who just wanted to sit down and watch some TV or a movie to deal with that.

Re:Is there anything new here?

[eugene ts wong]

I agree with you about discoverability. I noticed that a lot of buttons on RCA remotes become unusable during certain situations, which means that they go to waste.

Another thing that I would suggest is using the stop button as a universal cancel button, and the play button as a universal submit/okay button. This would lower the learning curve, and save a lot of heart ache.

Another idea is to just give 2 remotes. 1 would be for configuring the player, and 1 would be for using the player. The configuring remote would have most/all features laid out, while the other would ergonomic and only have enough buttons for basic usage, such as play back.

This can work

[prisoner]

I've done it with my business (computer consulting) in the past and it can work. Of course, it can also go horribly wrong - it depends entirely on the person and the situation. You can't parachute someone with no skills at all into an intense consulting situation but I've hired people with some minimal IT experience and it has made my business better because of it. Even if they do not immediately contribute to the bottom line they can make the business stronger.

In my case, hiring the best "generalist" IT consultants has consistently led me towards a company full of gifted but undisciplined (including me) staff. I have hired a couple of very disciplined but marginal IT people in the recent past as their adherence to ordering and overall work flow have made the company stronger. In such a situation you usually have to give them a lot of support and keep the other staff from grousing too loudly about it but it can work.

I expect it is a pretty old trick really.

The curse of knowledge ???

[foobsr]

More the lack of knowledge, or at least the application of it.

Some causes:
– unnecessary time pressure at 'lower levels' due to lack of planning capabilities at 'higher levels'
– general focus on speed (seen as reduction of cost) rather than quality
– expulsion of elderly above 35 from processes, thereby loosing on 'corporate knowledge'
– focus on specialised training, view of general education as a burden and a waste of time

CC.

Why not just shipping 2 remote controls?

[dermoth666]

With two remote controls, one could be made easy with most used features (power control, menu buttons, play/stop/pause/ff/fr and the setup button) and the other one with plenty of buttons for brainy people that use all the features made available to them.

Wouldn't that be the best of the two worlds?

The curse of knowledge sure sounds stupid

[jovius]

Creativity and knowledge go hand in hand. Expanding knowledge provides new tools to be creative. Creativity may be restricted by the properties of the outside reality, but not by knowledge. Even intelligence doesn't matter, unless something coherent needs to be created :)

Re:52 buttons

[Lumpy]

Of which makes my life better. I love DVD players with DISCREET IR functions. I HATE The crappy ones t hat have a single POWER button a single PLAY/PAUSE and other "multifunction" single buttons. Only the crappy products do that.

you see I'm an integrator, I take all that high tech gear that makes an entertainment center/theater and make it brain dead easy for a person with an IQ of 80 use it without help.

I love dvd players that have discreet ON and OFF IR commands. that way when you press the "TURN EVERYTHING OFF" button on your programmed remote, everything actually does turn off.

I hate the new electronics that is coming out lately that is "dumbed down" for the average american consumer.