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Comment by taude | Hacker News Reader

I think you're "assumed context" problem actually has another term called "Curse of Knowledge" [1] (which I believe it's much more known as). There's a ton of strategies that have been written about it. Just adding this term here for people who want to search for strategies on how to work around this. It comes into play in all forms of communication, written, verbal, Slack, etc...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge

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I can speak to what it's like with autism brain.

In conversations people often say things that I have unusual associations about. My mind will start spiraling about the unusual association and I will begin an internal narrative about the new, unrelated topic without verbalizing any of it. I will continue with the original conversation with the convo partner. Then, out of the blue, I will verbalize something about the second topic and the convo partner has no idea what I'm talking about. The topics can be as unrelated as databases and the mating habits of penguins. I have forgotten that the convo partner did not take the journey into the second narrative with me.

Countdown to database of mating habits of penguins comment.

> Countdown to database of mating habits of penguins comment.

19 minutes.

That's very clearly stated - I recognize it so much from my son (who has autism)! Thanks for putting it out there!

Is this specifically an autistic trait and not something allistic minds do? Asking, uh, for a friend.

FWIW I think everyone does this on occasion.

This sounds eerily familiar. Thank you for posting, I have some reading to do.

Dang, this describes many interactions I've had over my life.

Curse of knowledge is a different thing. The "assumed context" problem isn't a teacher-pupil or expert-novice dynamic. It's just someone not providing enough context to an audience that would otherwise be able to understand and help them.

This is something I wrestle with at work all the time. I try to break things down to make them comprehensible but I wind up forgetting to frame the discussion to give the context needed to get input even from fellow developers.

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