Unconscious Incompetence:
on display when a tragicomic person on a talent show believes they can sing, but can’t.
Business – underperformers who believe they’re doing a good job. The condition of an inept or incapable person who doesn’t realize they’re inept or incapable.
Conscious Incompetence:
clowning around, acting stupid, the essence of certain kinds of comedy.
Business – a tactic used by pool hustlers to cause their opponents to underestimate them.
The quality of any intelligent, capable person who chooses to act unintelligent and incapable. OR, the quality of an incapable person who knows they are incapable.
Unconscious Competence:
Talent. The “natural athlete.” A person who is unconsciously competent is “gifted.”
Business – The natural salesman. The natural leader. The natural counselor. NOTE: Any instructor who talks about being “in the zone” or describes a similar frame of mind is probably a motivational speaker, not the teacher of a skill. A person who is unconsciously competent often believes they are instructing people when they are, in fact, merely inspiring them.
Conscious Competence:
A learned proficiency. The result of study, exploration and practice.
A public exhibition of Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 Hour Rule.”
(In his book, Outliers, Gladwell contended that – outside the world of sport – that it’s “an extraordinarily consistent answer in an incredible number of fields … you need to have practiced, to have apprenticed, for 10,000 hours before you get good.”) Most successful artists aren’t born geniuses, they get there through effort; study, exploration and practice.