You’ve fooled yourself into believing you know something you don’t.
An illusion is any perception in your head different from reality. The illusion of competence to simply put is the wrong perception of what you can do in terms of skill set. It is a mental phenomenon where you think you have mastered a skill, but you haven’t.
You have already created a wrong perception in your head, relaxed and waiting for offers or examination. This is one of the reasons people fail exams and interviews. Most of us are guilty of claiming we know something we don’t and it is not because we want to fail, it is because we don’t learn enough or we learn the wrong way.
The time spent learning a skill doesn’t guarantee mastery. However, the time spent practicing and working on new ideas can. Spending hours learning and practicing what you have learned is proven to be the most effective pattern to master a skill.
Some people are quick to understand when they are on a misleading route. The best way to avoid being trapped in the illusion of competence is to identify when you are deliberately misleading yourself. If you can identify when you are misleading yourself, you don’t always have a wrong perception of what you are capable of.
Some highly effective and proven methods to shatter the illusion of competence includes;
MENTAL RETRIEVAL (RECALL)
For example, after watching a section of how to set up your Integrated Development Environment on YouTube, you can pause the video and attempt to “recall” the fundamental ideas and steps you just watched. Anything you can do just to watch recall what you have learned can go a long way in helping you master your skill and push far away from diving into the illusion of competence.
ATTEMPTING QUIZZES
Another way to get away and avoid the illusion of competence is by attempting quizzes and tests. When you take quizzes or tests, the results don’t always define your Skillset. It is important to take the feedback from all the results of the tests and quizzes and improve on them.
PEER LEARNING
Peer learning is one of the most effective methods of learning. It is the process of learning among your peers. Your peers are accountability partners, which means your learning process and pattern are the same. You get to practice and work on new ideas together. Most of the time, you have the same goals.
MAKING MISTAKES
When mistakes are made in a no-risk situation like self-testing, they can stand as a road map for what not to do and can help you correct flaws in your thinking. Learn to relish your mistakes because chances are you will not make the same one twice.
INTERLEAVED LEARNING
Interleaved learning is a technique that involves mixing different topics and forms of practice to facilitate learning. Interleaving helps people keep additional information, gain new skills, and improve existing abilities in a wide range of domains.
CHANGING LOCATIONS
Changing locations so will ease any physical clues that you can pick up from your environment. There are chances that the location you study and practice is not the location you will be tested in, being able to recall the information in whatever physical location can help with that.
SIMULATION
Simulation is a technique that involves doing the real-world project with your Skillset. You can come up with ideas that fit worldly demand. Sometimes it is okay to look at big ideas in the world and come up with a similar idea with a unique structure.
Have you ever had an illusion of competence? kindly use the comment session and give this a clap. Thanks
