The 'Curse of Knowledge' Is Why You Never Hit Publish — Here Is How to Overcome It
Many writers hold back from sharing their ideas online because they assume their content is too obvious or lacks novelty, a bias rooted in a psychological phenomenon called the curse of knowledge. Research by Camerer, Loewenstein, and Weber (1989) and Birch et al. (2017) shows that familiarity with information leads people to overestimate how widely it is known. The author experienced this firsthand when a seemingly simple blog post — shared on Hacker News — unexpectedly reached the platform's front page, despite containing no original concept. This outcome reinforced the idea that authenticity and relatable perspective can resonate with readers even when the underlying idea is not new. The author encourages writers to test their ideas with people outside their usual circles and publish anyway, rather than discarding potentially valuable content through self-censorship.
