> The thing about subject matter experts is that they’re so good at their subject, they often aren’t aware of what they know.
It isn't quite the same thing, but "tacit knowledge"[1] is similar to this concept.
The difference is that the author is talking about things you don't know you know, where tacit knowledge is for things you know that you may have self-awareness but have difficulty conveying.
My favorite example of tacit knowledge is knife sharpening. Even with hundreds of 4k videos of it on YouTube, it's still very hard to teach because so much of the skill rests on the sense of pressure while you're sharpening, which can't be conveyed in video.
Polanyi's work "The Tacit Dimension" is one of my favorites! You can teach calligraphy fundamentals, the principles of hardness and grinding, but it's hard to tell someone how to use a pencil to write. You never think of how you use it while writing, it becomes an extension of the body like a cane allows the blind to feel the world. Maybe Video Games in a genre also feel like they have a bit of this quality, where familiar interfaces allow hard to explain expertise.
What virtual tools give the same opportunity for depth of understanding? For me, the old Photoshop UI and VI come to mind.
the author might be talking about "expert embarassment", which is very different than tacit knowledge.
The expert knows that there is a hole in his domain knowledge, but is exasperated because he can't say for sure what it is! That's quite a legit unknown unknown. Even an expert needs the Beginner-Mind to deal with such situations (as author hints towards end of TFA)
It isn't quite the same thing, but "tacit knowledge"[1] is similar to this concept.
The difference is that the author is talking about things you don't know you know, where tacit knowledge is for things you know that you may have self-awareness but have difficulty conveying.
My favorite example of tacit knowledge is knife sharpening. Even with hundreds of 4k videos of it on YouTube, it's still very hard to teach because so much of the skill rests on the sense of pressure while you're sharpening, which can't be conveyed in video.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_knowledge