The only way to communicate is to understand what it is like not to understand. It is at that moment that you can make something understandable.
It is the trap of forgetting what it’s like not to know. The minute we know something, we forget what it was like not to know it.
To some extent, we all fall victim to this when we explain something to another, for the simple reason that once we know something, we can’t remember what it was like not to know it.
For many years, I had an idea in my mind of what the Pantheon in Rome looked like. Then, the instant I saw it, I forgot the picture of it that existed only in my imagination.
If you could remember what it was like not to know, you could begin to communicate in terms that might be understood more readily by someone who doesn’t know.
we can anticipate some of their questions and become better information transmitters.
00:23:04 They can’t understand what it’s like not to understand
00:22:44 They can’t even imagine my stupidity
”The key to making things understandable is to understand what it’s like NOT to understand.” ~ Richard Saul Wurman