Levels of knowledge 2

I wrote a post about the levels of knowledge in which I described a couple of imaginary scenarios of what people can see at various levels of knowledge or development. Since writing that post I read a book which made it much clearer how one can think about changing levels of knowledge and how a change from imcompetence in a subject can gradually turn into competence.

According to the model found in the book, there are four stages of change: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence and unconscious competence. I've written a couple of sentences about each of these stages below.

The initial stage is the unconscious incompetence. In other words, you don't do something right but you don't know it. In terms of aikido training, you might think that your ikkyo is very good whereas the truth is that ikkyo can be done much better, it's more complicated than what you think about it right now. That is why aikido is complicated. According to a quote, this is the stage which corresponds to "He who knows not and knows not that he knows not" of a Chinese proverb. Or, to relate to some biblical themes, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". You don't know that you don't know so you are naturally happy about the thing you don't know much about.

The second stage is conscious incompetence. This is the beginning of a kind of awakening because you realise and you are aware that you don't do something well or well enough. For example, you can see that you do an ikkyo cut by using your muscles a lot. This is the stage which is very frustrating, and where many people give up whatever it is they are supposed to learn about. This is how I considered quitting aikido, my PhD studies and many other things a lot of times (and sometimes I did quit, and sometimes I came back to it in a time when I was ready, e.g. a year after quitting). It's hard for the ego to see that you know how to do things yet you don't or can't do them (yet). I think this is the stage where the 'secret' of aikido training comes in: keep turning up. To get to the next stage, to solve your problem, to learn something, you need to keep going and beat the frustration. Very hard thing to do. But it is rewarding. Not simply because you will learn something but because once you are aware of something that is missing it's pretty hard to forget about it and go back to stage one. For example, you quit university because you failed one exam. You might remember this all your life and regret it, so it might be worth trying again if you really want to graduate. (It's a different, and more complex thing, if you should quit there and the 'mistake' you made was entering university at all; let's not deal with this part for now; let's keep the model as simple as possible).
To come back to stage two of the model, I guess, to keep going, keep turning up is very similar to 'facing your fears'. Once you learn that there are some obstacles in your way, e.g. you don't like to go out and be among people in a crowdy supermarket (own example), you just need to keep going and sooner or later you will be able to accept it, deal with it, learn that it's your attitude that makes you feel bad/good about a crowded place. In the Chinese proverb, "He who knows not and knows that he knows not is willing...teach him."

The third stage is conscious competence. In other words, you know how to do things and you make a conscious effort to do them right. You deal with the situation because you know what to do and you are able to do so. The frustration level becomes lower because you realise that you can cut that ikkyo nicely but you should focus on relaxed shoulders in order to keep them relaxed. As a result, your cut will be nice, and you work for it to be so. I think it's important to realise that this stage exists. Many people, including myself, dream about doing things well naturally, with no effort, however, to get there, first you have to work for it, and work a lot for it. Even if you cut that ikkyo nicely, if you stop practicing you will soon go back to stage two when you try it the next time. I wish to be able to quit this stage but doing things well rarely comes as an instinct if you didn't do them well before. This stage can also be inspirational, however, as you should have some kind of feedback about your process. Even if noone else knows, you know that you do things well, and that can give you power to keep doing it. For example, I used to complain a lot about everything. Then I realised how much I was complaining. Now I do my best to not complain, and I'm having some successes in the process (meaning that I should be somewhere on the border of stage two and three). The inspirational feedback that makes me smile is when I see other people complain and be negative and I know I am working on my complaints and simply don't join the circle of complaints. I'm sure there will be some more difficulties in my way, and sometimes I will fall back to stage two, as stage two doesn't require much effort to do things right, but I know there is stage three, and I know that my final reward will be stage four. But before going there, the corresponding quote for stage three: aki tud es tudja. Why is it dangerous? Because making an effort and having success can lead to realise that 'you are better than others'. However, the effort still should be done for yourself, to do things better yourself, and not to compare your 'awesomeness' to others. Maybe this part of the quote is not completely the same as what my book said about conscious competence, but it might also needed to be taken into consideration. "He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep...awaken him."

Stage four, unconscious competence. My dreamland. It is doing things well without making any conscious efforts about them. Cutting a perfect ikkyo while thinking about the whole Universe and smiling all the way. Being good by not trying to be good (which is not the same as trying to be bad). I'm sure I must have experienced this stage before, in some small self-changing projects or in some other learning expericence, but I don't really know about them as they are unconsciously there (and I'm just hoping I didn't slip back somehow to stage one). Hmm...but because of the frustrating stage, shouldn't I remember what I am unconsciously competent in? This might need a bit more thinking and a bit more experience with getting through the first three stages of many developmental changes in my life. So I leave this stage for now and I believe it exists as other people wrote about it in books. The corresponding part of the proverb: "He who knows and knows that he knows is wise...follow him...."

I'll try to research this topic more so I can compare my knowledge to the levels of knowledge of the shu-ha-ri process, and with spiral dynamics, etc.