The Four Stages of Competence was originally posited by Noel Burch, an employee of Gordon Training International in the 1970’s. I love this mental model mainly because of how often it can be applied to learning in multiple fields from sports to philosophy.
I’m not sure how actually grounded this model is in science as little scientific experimentation has been done using it. But it still presents a compelling picture of the learning experience, especially for a new skill.
Let’s take the process of learning painting as an example of a skill you can learn.
In the first stage, Unconscious Incompetence, you don’t know why you are bad at painting. You’re ignorant of your own brush strokes and when you look at the painting, you’re not sure why it’s bad or not. After you have a painting teacher for awhile, maybe you’ve watched a dozen episode of Bob Ross, you start to be aware of your own skill level. You start to see yourself on the spectrum of learning. This is Conscious Incompetence. In other words, you know why you suck.
With a lot of practice, and a lot more Bob Ross, you start to peek into Conscious Competence. Now you’re a good painter. And not only that, you know why you’re good. You know the journey that got you there. But that also means that the hurdle to get to the final stage is still far away. With even more practice, possibly trying out new teachers, experimenting with your own styles, you finally reach Unconscious Competence. In other words, painting becomes second nature to you. Or at least, a core set of mini-skills do. The way you dab the paint on your brush and bring it to a perfect stroke on the canvas, or the way you picture the painting in your mind before it comes out on the brush. All of these things are now natural, you don’t have to think about them.
In the last stage (the secret 5th stage) as outlined in the above image. There’s a danger of once you reach Unconscious Competence, you’ll get complacent. Since things are natural, you don’t have to push hard anymore. But this laziness will not result in Mastery. This might even be that biggest hurdle of all four previous stages, but this is what differentiates the professionals and the good amateurs. The professional National Geographic photographers and the people who buy nice cameras.
These 4 stages give us a strong window into our own learning experiences. It’s a profoundly useful model for thinking about just about any new thing you are learning.
