Work backwards from what the learner needs to do
Start with the decision or action the learner must take, then trace back only to the knowledge that serves it.
Why it works
Experts organize knowledge by structure; novices need it organized by use. When an expert works backwards from a concrete outcome — "they need to be able to do X" — it filters the curriculum naturally: everything that does not serve X is cut, and everything that does serve it is prioritized. This reverses the curse’s natural direction of information flow.
How to do it
- Identify the one or two things the learner must be able to do after this explanation.
- List every piece of knowledge that directly enables those actions.
- Cut everything else — context, background, and "interesting" material that does not serve the outcome.
- Sequence what remains so each piece enables the next, ending at the target action.
Evidence
Backward design (Wiggins & McTighe, Understanding by Design) is an established instructional design principle with wide practitioner support. Formal comparative studies are fewer, but the principle aligns with cognitive load theory and transfer-appropriate processing research. (clinical)
Backward design is widely endorsed in education but most evidence is practitioner-observational rather than from randomized trials.
Sources
- Wiggins & McTighe (1998), Understanding by Design
Common mistake
Including everything the expert considers important rather than only what the learner needs — a curriculum shaped by the expert’s pride of knowledge rather than the learner’s goal.
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More practices for The Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Struggle to Teach
- Take the tap test before you present
Literally tap out a melody and notice how obvious it is to you — but invisible to listeners.
- Find a genuine novice to test your explanation on
Before the real audience, explain to someone who actually doesn’t know.
- Open with a concrete story, not with your framework
Lead with a specific, sensory narrative before introducing any abstraction.
- Run a jargon audit on every key explanation
Go word by word through your explanation and mark every term a newcomer would not know.
- Ask what the audience already knows before explaining
Probe prior knowledge explicitly rather than assuming it.
- Build a bridging analogy from what they know to what they don’t
Map the new concept onto a structure the audience already understands.
- Deliberately slow down at conceptual transitions
Pause, name the transition, and check understanding before moving to the next idea.
Related concepts
- Concrete Examples: How to Make Abstract Ideas Stick
The cognitive mechanism behind examples and how to deploy them without fooling yourself
- The Feynman Technique, Step by Step
Explain it simply, find the gaps, and close them
- Make It Stick: The Science of Learning
Retrieval, spacing, interleaving, and elaboration — the evidence-backed core
- Deliberate Practice, Not Just Practice
Focused, feedback-driven practice at the edge of your ability