How to Learn Anything with
the 4 Stages of Competence
There seems to be a question that everyone wants
the answer to. I've had YC founders reach out to me for this. I've had business leaders from
FANG and other Fortune 100 companies asking me for private coaching just to know, "Am I using
frameworks correctly? How do I know if I'm doing it right?" And you know, there's actually a
framework for this, not just to know whether you're using frameworks correctly but just in
general, how do you master a new skill from a beginner to get to an expert? And that framework
is called the four stages of competence.
**Stage 1: Unconscious Incompetence**
Competency stage number one, the lowest, is unconscious incompetence, which means you
don't know what you don't know. You could be hearing business leaders, deep thinkers talk
about frameworks. So that's the basic dynamic, and that's the framework within which you
know people come in realizing that strategy is not industry-specific. It's frameworks and
how you think about a business. I learned, you know, I came up with this framework when
I was really young, and yet you don't even recognize that that's a mode of thinking
that you can also use. You just think, "Oh yeah, they're naturals. They're good at
organizing their thoughts, articulating them, just got nothing to do with me. I'm not born
that way." So the key here to move on to the next stage is one, to recognize there is a skill;
two, know that there is a skill gap; and three, you can be humble enough to say, "Okay, I don't
know much about this, but I'm willing to find out," which will lead us to stage number two.
**Stage 2: Conscious Incompetence**
Conscious incompetence. Once we're aware
of the skill gap, we can start to fill it in. If you thought it was painful to accept
your owing incompetence in stage one, well, it gets worse because I've reviewed hundreds of
survey responses, I've talked to dozens of people, and most people, 90% of people, get stuck in
stage two because it's so hard. Most of us try to do the easy thing of, "Let me just consume a
lot of information, hoard everything, and maybe by osmosis, you know, that'll get me to become
an expert." Progress will be infuriatingly slow if you rely on theory alone, and actually, it can
bring you backward because information overload, right? It actually incapacitates us from doing
anything because we are overwhelmed. Yes, you have to learn something theory, but you got
to put it into practice and go for it. You got to make some mistakes. This is especially hard
for adults. As kids, at least we had teachers, parents dragging us through the learning process,
so when it's hard, we still move forward. But as adults, you know, busy, delicate, we don't want
to make mistakes. We want to protect ourselves, so sometimes we don't even practice. And
when things get hard, no one's there to keep us accountable. When we make mistakes, no
one's there to point it out and guide us towards the right path. And that's why only 10% of people
make it to stage three, conscious competence.
**Stage 3: Conscious Competence**
And specifically focusing on frameworks, if you've been on this channel for a while,
then hey, at least you're starting on stage two, if not stage three. You know what frameworks are,
you know how they're being used by the top 10% in communications, in business, in life. You now
have the basics down. Say, if his frameworks are, "Okay, now I get 80/20 my to-do list," but
it doesn't come easy, right? You still have to sit down there, you have to remember, "I'm
going to use 80/20," and then you look at it, you're like, "Oh, but which one's 80, which
one's 20?" So it still requires a lot of effort, and you'll find that, wait a second, it's still
really difficult to apply 80/20 outside of this use case that I'm used to. "What if I want to
apply it to my thinking? What if I want to apply it to a book? I don't yet know how to do it."
So here, practice is essential, and we have to level up the type of practice we do. Again, 90% of
people will fall off here because, wait a second, I thought I already have conscious competence.
Shouldn't I be just doing all of this naturally? What's happened instead? In stage three,
we're more like an athlete. On the one side, we have to train ourselves. We have to put in
the reps, put in the practice that is varied, that is guided, that's very deliberate, and we
have to do it all the time. And on the other hand, there is a mental component to this. We have
to master our mind every time we feel like, "Oh wait, like why do I feel so stupid? I'm not
doing this quickly. Frameworks are supposed to be easy." But if you can master that and realize
you, this is all a part of the learning process, then you'll be able to get to stage four.
And this is unconscious competence.
**Stage 4: Unconscious Competence**
By this stage, everything comes second nature, right? Example, if you're learning frameworks,
it's while you're at a Q&A or while your boss just randomly pulls you aside and asks you, "Can
you give me an update?" You can listen to what they're saying and at the same time, organize
your thoughts with frameworks without even having to think about it and say, "Wait, can you give
me some time to write this out, looking at your emails, your DMs?" Can I point out the obvious?
Some of you feel so frustrated, so infuriated, so not confident because you assumed, you know,
with frameworks or with any skill, it's going to go from stage one directly to stage four, and if
you feel like you have to even put in some effort, you feel like you're doing it wrong. That is
not at all the case. And as new consultants, we had to go through this very deliberate,
action-based plan. Number one, you can't have too much information. You just get the things
that you need, and you move on to number two, which is practice. Get non-theoretical
understanding. Practice on the job. Use the frameworks that you know. And number three is
get feedback, the incessant feedback. You know, have other people who have more experience point
out what you're doing right, what you're doing wrong, and how you can get back on track. This
learning loop was so essential to consulting that you're even formally graded on this. If you
can do all three, it means you're action-biased, you're a really efficient and quick learner,
and you know, to be honest, you get promoted because you can quickly iterate. And if you
want a D for you plan, I am running my cohort again. We're going to go through the essential
frameworks that you need to know, and then
we'll go through exercises, games, case studies
where you can practice, turn that theory into practice with other people, so you can see how
others are doing it. I'll be there to guide you, and of course, there will be feedback, right?
What you're doing well, what you can start to try at work, what you want to improve on, and how to
actually improve on those. And of course, if you want more details, link is in the description
below. You can check out this video here for more details on the core of the framework,
and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.
