1. Unconscious incompetence
The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn.[5]
2. Conscious incompetence
Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, they recognize the deficit, as well as the value of a new skill in addressing the deficit. The making of mistakes can be integral to the learning process at this stage.
3. Conscious competence
The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires concentration. It may be broken down into steps, and there is heavy conscious involvement in executing the new skill.[5]
4. Unconscious competence
The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it has become "second nature" and can be performed easily. As a result, the skill can be performed while executing another task. The individual may be able to teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned.
This can end up being an uncomfortable position when people ask you to explain exactly why you made a decision, and even though you probably could explain it with some effort, it's difficult because you made your choice based on experience-derived intuition. Being at the conscious competence stage may actually require less work in general, unless one gets to work with other unconscious competent people.
I have this a bit with the Object Oriented Programming principles.
The code structure just needs to feel right. It's hard to throw principles at it to show which structure is better. To me it always feels like there are so many aspects to take into account, that cannot just be expressed by priciples.
Some code feels right, and some doesn't. Sometimes extending code "falls into place" and confirms that your previous reasoning was the right one. And other times it just remains a complex mess ;).
> You can be very very good at something, but true mastery is being able to impart that knowledge on others as well.
Is that true though? How do we know that the ability to teach is not a unique skill in and of itself rather than just an extension of one's "mastery"?
Anecdotally, I've engaged with "masters" of various fields as different as blacksmithing to theoretical physics. Of these "masters", I've encountered good teachers and bad. But I've not personally felt any correlation between their mastery of the subject (i.e. their ability to produce results in the area) vs. their ability to teach the area.
I've had various trainers in boxing. Most of them were damn good boxers. One of the best was a real talent, been boxing since he was 10. He never went very far with competing, but ho boy did he look great at the gym.
When explaining how to do something, he really struggled. Most of the time he could show us what he does, but not explain how he does it, why he does it, or sometimes not even realize what exactly he does until he tries it. Then he's like "Oh yeah I guess I do take a little step there, you're right"
Then there's a trainer who is a little less talented himself, competed at a pretty decent level as an adult, but decided to pursue training instead. He can tell us what to do and why we should do it. Also how to think about strategies and whatnot. He's great but we need a lot of repetition and trial and error.
Then there was the lady who is an 8 time professional world champion on Muy Thai. She came to our gym to become a better boxer and to get free membership she offered to teach.
Dude, that was on another level. She could not only explain why we should do something, but also how. She'd look at your punch and be like "No no, move your wrist 5 degrees this way" and damn did it immediately make an impact.
3 months of working with her created more boxing improvement than 3+ years of other trainers has. It was phenomenal.
The difference was that she wasn't just talented, she also had a deep understanding of exactly what you have to do, why you have to do it, and how you have to do it. Her advice was measured in half-inch adjustments to your technique.
Teaching might be a separate skill, but true mastery is being able to break down exactly how you do what you do and why.
Oh and better yet: she explained how it should feel when we get it right. So not only would we know what to do, but also how to tell if we did it right.
In Pirsig's Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance he discusses mastery of writing and language as beyond that of robotic regurgitation of language rules. In fact, most languages have many exceptions and inconsistencies among their rules, and being a good writer is not defined by them, and even can invove stretching or breaking them.
I also have taught English to novice speakers and sometimes am struck by such questions they receive, sometimes being all of: obtuse, irrelevant and pedantic at the same time. But that is their primary objective: to sell tests and teaching materials to their tests, not direct competency.
I think it makes sense, because if you know the right choice wihout being able to explain why, you also can’t easily realise if this case is in fact an exception to the usual case from your experience.
> because if you know the right choice wihout being able to explain why
But teaching isn't simply being able to explain why something is the way it is. It's more than that.
I could explain to you why planets move the way they do by using the language of tensor fields built up out of tensor products mapping vectors to their duals. It would be a thoroughly accurate definition of why we see the movement we see but it would not necessarily be a good way to teach. Particularly if the recipient of the teaching wasn't familiar with the formalism of general relativity.
It's this aspect, that teaching is more than simply understanding that makes me think it potentially could be orthogonal to mastery of a subject.
I also think the mistakes you make are worse when you get to that level. You don't make many at that point, but the ones you do make tend to come out of nowhere and surprise you a lot more because you're not expecting to make them. Whereas at that conscious competent level you're still paying more attention to every little thing. Or there's those silly little mistakes you make just because you're not really thinking about the process and working unconsciously. Those things that you really should know better, haven't done for years but overlooked that one time because, you're just going for it.
The author had almost no mountain biking skills and a friend who was one of the best in the world. The book was built up during the author’s advancement through the stages by observing the expert, who was largely incapable of communicating exactly how he was doing what he was doing.
That's sometimes the case with unconscious competence, but it's not implied by the definition.
The line "The individual may be able to teach it to others" addresses precisely this point. Having unconscious competence is orthogonal to being able to explain what you are doing.
i imagine another factor to why explaining actions taken would be harder for a unconscious competent person is that the skill of explaining that action is a different one than performing it. but, in the same manner, that skill of explanation also has its own 4 stages of (un)conscious ignorance/competence. interesting stuff for sure
I'd gladly add another concept: how to quickly navigate into unknown territory. Experts might not know everything, but they can analyze a new situation quickly due to accumulation of concepts and overcoming new situations over the years.
ps: and ultimately, when I compare my younger self to me right now (in music) .. the only difference, is a subtle blend of patience and sensitivity. When you don't know you try small things without waiting too long or digging too deep. A newcomer may often go paralysed or stuck on the wrong intuition.
This model has always had the ring of truth to it, to me.
One amusing state you can add when you get old is something like this:
5) Semi-conscious semi-competence
The individual used to be an actual expert in something, but so many years have passed that they are only semi-competent. Yet they retain the manners and affectations of someone who is a true expert. This state tends to confuse and alarm others who are themselves competent and can’t figure out exactly what you are.
Then you graduate, grow older, perhaps go on to university, grow older still, perhaps marry and have kids, continue to grow older, and if you're lucky...
...you realize that you still "know not that you know not, know that you know not, know not that you know, and know that you know" about most everything.
Nope it just stops at know that you know, and then you are a brilliant leader with unconscious competence. People will go on national television to explain how you are so brilliant that you don’t even need to think about it to make the best and most great decisions.
Well, then there is a fifth stage where an experienced person does something a person in stage 2-3 would probably not, because they have enough experience to be overconfident. Thinking of skydiving accidents.
1. Unconscious incompetence The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn.[5]
2. Conscious incompetence Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, they recognize the deficit, as well as the value of a new skill in addressing the deficit. The making of mistakes can be integral to the learning process at this stage.
3. Conscious competence The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires concentration. It may be broken down into steps, and there is heavy conscious involvement in executing the new skill.[5]
4. Unconscious competence The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it has become "second nature" and can be performed easily. As a result, the skill can be performed while executing another task. The individual may be able to teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned.