4 ms·
Four stages of competence[1]: * Unconscious Incompetence: The individual neither understands nor knows how to do something, nor recognizes the deficit, nor has
by oscardelben 16y ago
Four stages of competence[1]:
* Unconscious Incompetence: The individual neither understands nor knows how to do something, nor recognizes the deficit, nor has a desire to address it.
* Conscious Incompetence: Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, without yet addressing it.
* Conscious Competence: The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires a great deal of consciousness or concentration.
* Unconscious Competence: The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it becomes "second nature" and can be performed easily (often without concentrating too deeply). He or she may or may not be able teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence
- callmeed 16y agoBut does Unconscious Competence == Expert ?
- ErrantX 16y agoNot always; I can do my job in my sleep but I'm barely expert in it... I think expertise is the next level beyond that - where you are pushing ideas of your own into what you do.
- MaysonL 16y agoOne job I had back in the 70s, I occasionally would get thanked by the operations people for fixing a problem the night before, of which I had no recollection whatever. Actually doing your job in your sleep is a little bit scary.
- hellweaver666 16y agoI think you become an expert when you go from "unconscious competence" to "passionate competence" i.e. you care so much about it that you live it, dream it and think of it every second. Examples are: * Rand Fishkin and his love of SEO * Jonny Ive and his passion for design * Tony Hsieh and his love of fostering an awesome place to work. All of these people live and love their chosen area of expertise.
- buro9 16y agoThe weird thing about unconscious competence, is that when things do become so intuitive and second nature I've personally started to find that I feel as if I don't know something. If asked... I feel I can't answer. If interviewed I'll probably fail. Yet I also find that when put in front of a problem the solution just presents itself. What's weird about this is that in feeling I know so little about things that I've 15 years experience in, I feel like I need to learn. So I expose myself to all opportunities to learn only to find that all tell me what I feel is evident and obvious. This is close to what I take to be the meaning of "forgotten more than I've ever learned". Whether this makes me an expert is debatable, I'd say no. I'd say that there was a re-learning stage after the last stage in which you acquire the means to understand deeply and to be able to communicate and pass on those skills. I'd say that an expert is someone who can pass on their skills, someone who can mentor others. (I also find it uncomfortable writing a post implying I know anything)
- berntb 16y agoI have an inverted experience... I have gone back to unconscious incompetence in some subjects I haven't touched for a decade, that I used to know better than most anyone I worked with. It is embarrassing sometimes. :-) I am still happy that I reinvented myself as a script programmer instead of a system programmer; what is fun for me is sitting down and generating lots of functionality in a short time. I can go to work with a smile and low risk of burnout. On the subject of expert or not: I guess that locally I am considered an expert on what I do, but I don't see me as one because I know how the real experts are.