Domain Dependence (Dobelli)

Rolf Dobelli's term for the failure to transfer knowledge and skills from one domain where you possess them to another domain where they'd be equally applicable. A surgeon who understands risk perfectly in the operating room but makes irrational investment decisions. A statistician who applies rigorous thinking professionally but falls for marketing manipulation personally. Domain dependence reveals that human knowledge is stored contextually—bound to the domain where it was learned—and doesn't automatically transfer to analogous situations. Transfer requires deliberate, effortful recognition of cross-domain applicability.

When to use it

When expertise in one area coexists with naive errors in another; when solutions to current problems already exist in different domains but haven't been recognized; when building a mental models approach that requires cross-domain transfer; when teams with diverse expertise aren't benefiting from each other's knowledge.

How it can help

Regularly ask: what do I know in one domain that I'm failing to apply in another? The practice: when facing a challenge in any domain, deliberately search your OTHER domains of expertise for analogous problems and solutions. Business problem? What would an evolutionary biologist say? Relationship challenge? What would a negotiation expert recommend? The most valuable insights often come from applying established knowledge from one domain to a novel domain where it hasn't been tried. Build the habit of cross-domain translation as a deliberate practice.