You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

There are several stages to learning. The first is Unconscious Incompetence. This is not knowing you don’t know or can’t do something. For example, a baby doesn’t know he can’t do a back tuck because he doesn’t know what a back tuck is. He can’t even think about a back tuck because he has no concept of what a back tuck is. The next stage is Conscious Incompetence, which is knowing you don’t know or can’t do something. An example of this would be me attempting to do Marcel’s job. He’s a rocket scientist, I am not. I understand the job is to get space ships, satellites, and rockets in the air, but I wouldn’t be able to get it done.

The third stage is Conscious Competence. is knowing you know or can do something. This is most people’s golf game. They have to work at it and concentrate on it, but can be good at it. The final stage is Unconscious Competence. This is when you know longer have to think about what you are doing. An adult walking, the Love family tumbling, Dougie or Miggy stunting are examples. They’ve done these things long enough that they continue to do them well, even when not thinking about it.

I’m not sure why I wrote this, but I hope it lights a candle for someone.