Grace Hopper, the legendary computer scientist and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral didn’t just break the mould—she shattered it.
She even coined the term “bug” for a glitch in the system.
Her genius wasn’t just about tech—it went way beyond that.
She famously quipped, “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’”
This mindset of shaking things up kept her pushing boundaries and getting others to do the same.
But what really sets Grace apart is her escape from the “curse of knowledge.”
If you’re wondering what that is, here’s the deal.
When you become an expert at something, you forget what it’s like to not know it.
That makes explaining it to others incredibly difficult.
Grace understood this.
She knew that brilliance means nothing if you can’t communicate it.
Grace taught math, but she wasn’t just about numbers.
She made sure her students could communicate what those numbers meant.
When they complained about being graded on writing in a math class, she dropped some truth.
She said, “It’s no use trying to learn math unless you can communicate it.”
Boom.
Mic drop.
For Grace, it wasn’t just about math;it was about translation.
It was about clarity.
During WWII, she pushed her engineers to streamline their code.
She didn’t just tell them—she showed them.
That’s the length electricity travels in a microsecond.
Imagine coding with that image in your mind.
“I sometimes think we ought to hang one of these bundles over every programmer’s desk, or around their neck, so they know what they’re throwing away when they throw away microseconds.” - Grace Hopper
In wartime, a microsecond could be the difference between life and death.
And she made sure programmers knew that every microsecond mattered.
Grace wasn’t just coding.
She made a microsecond—a tiny time unit—something you could see and hold.
A microsecond might seem trivial but when you visualize it as the length of three football fields, it’s a whole new story.
Grace was the queen of clarity in a world often tangled in tech jargon.
She knew that knowing isn’t enough—you have to translate.
We’re all translators, whether we realize it or not.
The best among us, like Grace Hopper, make the most complex ideas simple.
Next time you’re deep in your expertise, channel your inner Grace Hopper.
Don’t let the curse of knowledge trap you in your own brilliance.
Translate it so anyone can see the beauty in your ideas.
Grab a piece of wire, break a few rules, and remember that the simplest explanations often hold the most power.
PS. Do you struggle to set yourself apart from your competitors? Does your tone of voice lack a little personality? Either way, get in touch and I’ll help you become remarkable. Or get more communication advice that doesn't suck here.
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