The "Curse of Knowledge"

Why it matters?

The Curse of Knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual communicating with others assumes they have the background knowledge to understand. Because they lack this knowledge, we lose them. This makes our work forgettable and our presentations almost impossible to understand.
Start the course - learn to avoid the curse

What is this course?

This is a course of communication and storytelling to learn how to promote your work with impact. It goes with the workshop taught by Charlelie Jourdan.

You’ll be able to: 

  1. Learn to use a single formula to communicate any technical information
  2. Feel capable of promoting your work to non-specialists
  3. Overcome the curse of "knowing too much" and make your information accessible to anyone
  4. Stop getting confused by "communication" and having to hire marketing experts


You’ll have:

  • A method used by over 3000+ professionals in diplomacy, research, and engineering
  • Three templates to use immediately in a professional context
  • Produce Powerpoint presentations, Linkedin articles and even a case-study video
  • Ten additional recipes to conduct interviews, share knowledge, write better emails, and have an immediate impact when starting a presentation.


Course curriculum

    1. 1.0 - introduction to the chapter "Too much information"

    2. Download the Exercise Template - whether in MS Powerpoint or Apple Keynote

    3. 1.1 - Struggling with information is natural - exposing the concept

    4. 1.2 - We are affected by the "Curse of Knowledge" + POLL

    5. Missing information from our colleagues

    6. 1.3 - SURVEY answer + Next steps of learning

    7. 1.4 - What can we do about the Curse of Knowledge - how plane pilots do it + COMPLETE FORMULA

    8. 1.5 - EXAMPLE of a 3 million euros project that lost its chance + POLL

    9. how can we make the story immediately more interesting?

    10. 1.6 - EXAMPLE - debriefing the 3 million euros project and how to apply the technique to live presentations

    11. 1.7 - RECAP - end of the chapter "Too much information" and recap of the main notions covered

    1. 2.0 - introduction to the chapter "What makes good and bad stories?"

    2. 2.1 - Why we get bored with technical stories and what we can do about it?

    3. 2.2 - Optimising the beginning of our story for someone to learn something new + EVALUATING if this works (Bottle of Light case)

    4. (survey evaluation) 4 questions to evaluate if the story works

    5. 2.3 - ANSWER to the evaluation - and how to make sure the introduction works (Bottle of Light case)

    6. 2.4 - EXERCISE: deconstructing a functional story and learning the formula further (Pigeon Air Patrol case)

    7. 2.5 - DEBRIEF OF THE EXERCISE (Pigeon Air Patrol)

    8. 2.6 - RECAP - end of the chapter "Good and Bad stories" and recap of the main notions covered

    1. 3.0 - Introduction to the chapter

    2. 3.1 - The logical articulation between (2) PROBLEM & (4) SOLUTION

    3. Why this story does not work?

    4. 3.2 - Do not overpromise & underdeliver

    5. 3.3 - EXERCISE: write your step 2 (REAL PROBLEM) and step 4 (SOLUTION)

    6. 3.4 - Who is the audience then?

    7. 3.5 - Why is it called a CATEGORY SOLUTION

    8. 3.6 - TOOL: table to help you identify PROBLEM/SOLUTION pairs

    1. Module 4.1 - Adding the #1 CONTEXT to your story

    2. Module 4.2 - Adding #3 EXPECTATIONS to your story

    3. Module 4.3 - Rewriting and testing with an AI Voice-over

    4. End of the first part

    1. Before moving on to the last module - a couple of questions

    2. Homework explanation

    3. Final exercise before the workshop

About this course

  • Free
  • 34 lessons
  • 2.5 hours of video content

Stop getting confused when you communicate.

Learn a technique and apply it to all your communication needs. From live presentations, investors' pitch and meetings, to videos and social media posts.

Instructor

Charlelie Jourdan

Charlelie Jourdan

I started my career recommending options that would affect 500 million people. I was a political assistant, reading 20 law proposals every month - and their corresponding 5000 amendments, just to give a voting recommendation to my boss. When I realised no one could understand this level of complexity - I became obsessed with better ways to share information and convince others. Since then, I worked with 6000 engineers, scientists and diplomats to find a way to pass information in both an ACCURATE & APPEALING manner.