Unconscious Competence as a Superpower
What’s something you know so well that you don’t have to think about it? Tying your shoes, brushing your teeth, or throwing a ball might be examples of actions you are able to accomplish with virtually no reflection. If I asked you, “What’s eight times eight?” you might automatically respond “64.” If that’s the case, you know this fact so well that you can access it effortlessly. Reading these words and understanding them is another example of this sort of reflexive knowledge.
In his book, The Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin distinguishes between four levels of competence:
Unconscious incompetence – “I don’t know how bad I am.”
Conscious incompetence – "This sucks. I know how bad I am.”
Conscious competence – “I can do this if I focus.”
Unconscious competence – “I don’t remember the last 10 minutes of driving my car.”
Josh Waitzkin is widely considered a master of learning. He was a child chess prodigy, winning two national championships. As an adult, he became a world champion in a martial art called Push Hands. Now he is working on foiling, a specialized form of surfing. He argues that an essential ingredient for achieving expert performance is putting in the work to move skills from conscious competence to the level of unconscious competence. The more you can perform the basics unconsciously, the more brain power you open up for higher order thinking.
This week I invite you to ask yourself:
In what area of my life would becoming more competent have a big impact? In this area, at which level of competence are my particular skills? If any of these were elevated to the level of unconscious competence, which would have the biggest impact?
God bless,
Dan
