The four stages of competence, a framing of cognitive development created in the 1960s, can help anyone appreciate the process of learning. We start learning journeys in a state of unconscious incompetence, ignorant about the things we're incapable of doing. If we take learning to ride a bike as an example, we're jerked out of our initial innocence when a neighborhood friend graduates from three wheels to two. At that moment we realize we don't possess the skills necessary to perform an activity we might enjoy or otherwise benefit from. This marks the entry point into an awkward second stage of conscious incompetence that forces us to acknowledge an inability to perform something we find value in, despite our initial efforts. The third stage of continual effort, called conscious competence, is the most frustrating stage because gains come only through painstaking focus and trial and error. Every new adventure beyond our neighborhood comes with the threat of a new bruise or scratch. With perseverance, we arrive at a state of unconscious competence where our mastery of the new skill allows us to apply it with seeming effortlessness, even as it acts as a springboard for further skill development: Not only can we now ride a two-wheeled bike but we can carry a friend on the handle bars and even ride handsfree over bumpy roads.
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