The Disease of Familiarity

You may suffer the disease of familiarity (meaning you are too familiar with a subject to know how others will view it.

Things that seem redundant or irrelevant to you may not be obvious to newcomers. The jargon of your profession may be unfamiliar to others. What you take for granted, others need explained.

The symptom: You can’t see what’s confusing because nothing is confusing to you anymore.

The cure: Test with actual users. Involve people who don’t share your expertise. Assume nothing is obvious.

Wurman: “The level of understanding of the person with whom you are communicating is not necessarily the same as your own. It is easy to forget that terms you understand, especially the jargon of your profession, may be new and unfamiliar to others.”

Practical implications:

• Documentation written by experts often fails beginners
• Internal tools assume context that new employees don’t have
• Domain experts underestimate explanation required
• The curse of knowledge makes communication harder

For AI systems: When building systems that leverage expert knowledge, the disease of familiarity affects the data itself. Experts record what they think matters, which may not be what novices need to learn.

Related: 06-atom—tacit-knowledge