The 4 stages of competence...

No, they aren't idiot, fool, apprentice, genius. Here are the four stages of competence:

1. Unconscious Incompetence - The individual neither understands or knows how to do something, nor recognizes the deficit or has a desire to address it.
2. Conscious Incompetence - Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, he or she does recognize the deficit, without yet addressing it.
3. Conscious Competence - The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires a great deal of consciousness or concentration.
4. Unconscious Competence - The individual has had so much practice with a skill that it becomes “second nature” and can be performed easily (often without concentrating too deeply). He or she may or may not be able teach it to others, depending upon how and when it was learned.
- Wikipedia

Thanks to Jerome Gagner for sharing in his recent blog post on the same topic. These ideas fold nicely into the Shu Ha Ri ideas discussed before.