5 steps to go from novice to expert

Nate Brown
Jul 24, 2017 · 4 min read

It’s simple, but it isn’t easy.

Whether you are writing software, flying kites, building bridges, or playing the piano, we all start in the same place and have a similar path. Sure, some of us discover talents, but talent has it’s limits, and it can be difficult and time consuming if you don’t know how to move forward when talent runs out.

There are at least five identifiable steps or phases as you move from novice to expert. These phases are interesting by themselves, but more interesting is knowing what it takes to move from one to the next.


Novice

When you are a novice, you are new to a skill. Perhaps you want to write software, or perhaps your grandfather just left you his violin and you want to learn to play it.

As a novice, you need to find resources to help you learn. Are there websites you can trust? Are there books that will give you good information? Is there a teacher that knows their stuff? Sifting the good information from the bad information will make a world of difference.

How do I rise above being a novice?

Learn and go through enough tutorials to start using the skill competently.

Figure out how to write software well enough that you can get a job doing it. Learn to play well enough that someone enjoys listening to you.

And if you truly want to become great, start developing a habit of learning.

Practicing

Once you start sharing your skill with others, and they are happy about it, you can consider yourself practicing. This is different from completing a tutorial, this is you using your own brain and knowledge to accomplish something valuable with your skill.

If you want to be skilled as a leader, being practicing starts with that first team lead position. If you have a band, your band is practicing once you get your first gig. If you want to write software, you start practicing when you get your first paying job, even if it’s an internship.

How do I rise above practicing?

Keep practicing.

Keep leading teams. Keep doing gigs. Keep writing software for your employer.

Add more variety to the ways you practice the skill. Volunteer as a leader for a group that enjoys your hobby. Play gigs at bars, weddings, garages, parks, street corners, and theaters. Write software for your own apps, for friends, and for other (non-competing) companies.

Develop a habit of doing the skill. Make it a part of your life, and diversify the ways you use it.

Adept

When you are adept, you have a habit of learning. You have a habit of practicing. You have a wide variety of experience that has given you the ability to accomplish any task with the skill.

Emma Stone is an adept actress. Billy Joel is an adept singer/songwriter. These are people we recognize as being in the top of their field, some might even think them to be the best at those skills.

So why aren’t they experts? We’ll get to that. Suffice to say that in developing a skill within yourself, adept is as far as you can go. Sometimes being adept is more rewarding than being an expert especially if your skill is unique to you.

How do I rise above adept?

Get feedback loops.

You can teach. Teaching forces you to translate the things you know into something that others can know. To teach well, you have to understand how your students think.

You can find peers with whom to discuss and argue. People who share your passion for the skill and have different experience/ideas. Especially peers that disagree with you, but are still adept.

Don’t stop learning. Don’t stop practicing. Do start seeing the skill from the perspective of someone else.

Advanced

When feedback loops are as much a habit as your learning and practicing, you are advanced. When you’re advanced, you have groups of other people with whom you regularly learn about, practice, discuss, debate, teach, brainstorm, and innovate the skill.

In my experience, becoming advanced is most often valued in business situations. Businesses want advanced employees who can mentor and refine other adept employees.

A front-end software guy is great. Two front-end guys who work well together is so much better. Two front-end guys who collaborate and help whole software teams do front-end well are the holy grail.

Wait, you said 5 steps. What’s the difference between Advanced and Expert?

I’m glad you asked…

Expert

So what’s an expert? An expert is someone who creates adept people in a skill.

How is that different from being advanced? Advanced people experiment and have many successes and failures. Experts can show consistent positive results.

And the nice thing about being an expert is that there is always room to grow. If you’re an expert on your team, you can work toward being an expert in your company. If you’re an expert in your company, you can work on becoming an expert in your city. Region. Country. World.

And world experts don’t stay that way unless they keep learning, practicing, and getting feedback.


If you’d like to explore these concepts, this post has it’s origin in the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition. While this model is not the only source, it is probably the best source to use as means to gain more insight.

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