The Curse of Knowledge

You can’t see the glasses you’re wearing, you can only see everything through them. That’s what it’s like being a founder looking at your own brand.

In 1990, a Stanford psychology student called Elizabeth Newton ran a simple experiment. One group tapped out the rhythm of well-known songs on a table, it was Happy Birthday. Another group listened and tried to name the song.

The tappers predicted the listeners would get half of them right. They got 3 out of 120.

The tappers were so far off because they could hear the melody in their heads. The listeners only heard knocking.

It’s called the Curse of Knowledge. Every founder has it. I have it in spades.

You hear the whole song in your head: the reason you set up the company, the sacrifices and late nights, the good decisions and the not so good ones, what you meant when you decided on that name everyone thinks is a joke.

Your customers or clients? Heaven forbid, even your team? They just hear tapping.

A while back we worked with a founder who adored their owl mascot. “Friendly,” they told us. Then we asked their customers. “Scary”. “Cold”. “Judgemental”.

Same owl. Two completely different brands. Only one of them was real, and it wasn’t the founder’s…

That isn’t a failing. It shows how much you care. You’re too close to your brand because you built it. But it does mean you’re the one person who can’t see it clearly.

The fix is simple. Ask people who only hear the tapping—your customers, your team, look, even your gran.

The gap between their words and yours is where your brand work starts.

—
Cat How is Founder and CCO at HOW+HOW