Anadi Upadhyaya
Anders Northeved
Arvin Kan
Chris Wilson
Pradeep Gupta
Hitesh Shah
Jayavel Bharathi
Justin Field
Kathi Chenoweth
Ken Klaus
Keshav Subramanya
Louise Barnfield
Meg Bear
Namita Panigrahi
Pramesh Vashist
Angela Doyle
Paul Gupta
Ravi Banda
Sal Taharim
Marcie Van Houten
Steve Hughes
Mark Bennett
Sri Subramanian (@whosissri)
“Others” might not understand
Posted by Meg Bear on April 14, 2009
Lately I’ve become aware of an interesting phenomenon. Turns out we all seem to think that we are smarter than the other guy. Seriously.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Lord knows anyone who has had the opportunity to work in retail, will confirm that there are a lot of stupid people in the world. That said, the process of hiring, does a pretty good job of weeding most of them out.
What I have noticed lately, is that when people are presented with a new concept a frequent reaction is something along the lines of
I understand what you are saying, but I’m pretty sure other people would not.
hmm..
What is so interesting about this, is that it often comes up in usability tests when something is working. Something that everyone is getting right will produce a response in people, that they are concerned that others wont get it.
Why would that be?
I guess there is one thought that people are trying to avoid the curse of knowledge and consider how others would react. Or another thought might be that we all just think we are a lot smarter than the average Bear (so to speak).
A possible third option might be, that when presented with something new, that you do understand, you are not really sure if you like it.
One way to express this discomfort, without being offensive, is to blame it on the other guy.
Thoughts?
TalentedApps 
Amy Wilson said
Meg – I really *liked* this post, but I don’t think anyone else will.
Louise Barnfield said
Love this post, Meg. On a slightly different tack, I recently had a lengthy ‘discussion’ with a colleague about some text that could (IMHO) benefit from some rework. In summary, my main beef was: “I’m confused, so I’m sure others will be too!” Was I just trying to fool myself that I’m not more stupid than the rest? 😉
Vivian Wong said
Good observation Meg! I confess – occasionally when I say “This is confusing to me, and I don’t think I’m the only one who can’t make sense of it”, I am actually being considerate and give a voice to Joe the plumber 😉
Meg Bear said
@Louise and @Vivian — interesting — both you gals seem to go the other direction “I” don’t understand (and maybe I’m not the only one). I think that is the opposite case actually and probably worth a blog itself (image: “I” am stupid? – grin).