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

Standard executive bias

[GaryOlson]

...and more NY Times craptastic reporting. The article language specifics negatively target technical types

• peppered with catch phrases and jargon
• experts set out to share their ideas in the business world
• engineers design products ultimately useful only to other engineers
• managers have trouble convincing the rank and file to adopt new processes
• some engineer along the line knew how to use that button
• innovation gets bogged down in the abstract language of specialization and expertise

Yet, the article fails to detail how managers/executives marginalize innovative engineering:

• failure to understand the implications of the technology thus removing the truly innovative aspect
• failure of marketing to understand the implications of subtle innovation and focusing on flashy, shallow FEATURES (aka buttons)
• failure of management to break the focus groups from their bias during product testing
• failure by management to assemble internal review groups without succumbing to the political minions

I give the non-technical people in this world a choice: a DVD remote with 52 buttons; or subsistence farming where sticks and rocks are their daily tools. Now quit your complaining.