👨🏫 Be a Guide, Not a Guru.
Sunday Scoop #50 - In this issue, we talk about the Curse of Knowledge and why being an amateur makes you a much better mentor than the expert.wha
Hey friends,
As many of you would’ve known by now, my friend Chris and I recently started a fun little project called UCAS Lab, where we gathered a team of current G6 Offer Holders to guide the 2021/2022 Applicants through their UCAS Applications.
If you are applying to the G6 this year, consider joining UCAS Lab to craft your perfect Application with a supportive community cheering you on along the way!
Cohort 3 is starting on August 9, 2021 and enrollments are now open :)
At any rate, I thought I’d share the thought process behind the creation of UCAS Lab - specifically how we got over the “Imposter Syndrome“, i.e. the nagging voice at the back of our minds chiding us for even thinking we have what it takes to teach people how to apply to the G6.
It does seem narcissistic, doesn’t it? Just because we received offers from the G6, we think that we are able to guide others to achieve the same results? What if all we achieved are strokes of luck, and not a testimony of our applications?
And most critically, how are we to compare with experienced mentors like those from MABECS or AXIOM?
💡 The Curse of Knowledge
The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that causes people to fail to properly understand the perspective of those who do not have as much information as them.
For example, the curse of knowledge can mean that an expert in some field might struggle to teach beginners, because the expert intuitively assumes that things that are obvious to them are also obvious to the beginners, even though that’s not the case.
That’s exactly how we differ from mentors who have been teaching for more a decade and are doing it for a living. That’s our Unfair Advantage.
Although these mentors are admittedly more experienced, our Lab Mentors are the ones who just went through the UCAS Applications last year and they are still very much in touch with the nagging concerns that comes with the Applications.
With that understanding in mind, we can then structure our Course Syllabus and implement specific systems to mitigate these issues and help our Lab Members produce the best work in the least amount of time.
🗝 Key Takeaway
I’m almost certain that at one point or another, you’ve had a great idea on starting a project.
However, I’m also equally certain that you’ve struggled with the Imposter Syndrome which may have led to your idea never seeing the light of day.
The next time you come across a million-dollar idea, I implore you to take action.
You don’t need to be an expert to go out there and do something. Especially when it comes to teaching/coaching/mentoring, it is in fact better for you to be an amateur instead of an expert.
The advantage of being an amateur is that you are still very much aware of the struggles of the beginner. By the virtue of that, and that alone, makes you a much better mentor than the expert who forgot the beginner’s struggles.
More often that not, we don’t need to (shouldn’t) be at Z to teach someone at A, we just need to be at B or C. That would more than suffice.
With that said, I hope that this issue of Sunday Scoop brought you value in some way, shape or form.
Be grateful for everything that took place this week. And start off strong the next.
Have a productive week, my friends.
Jia Shing.
P.S. - This issue is written during ⚡Power Hour with UCAS Lab’s Cohort 1 and 2 members.
P.P.S - Just started getting back into a workout routine. Planning to experiment with a few consistency tricks and will get back to you guys on another issue. (Time to walk the talk lmao)