Second-Order Incompetence
Watching this Merlin Mann video last night, he referenced second-order ignorance (or incompetence) from Pragmatic Thinking and Learning
a novice at a particular skill is so unskilled that they don’t even realize how unskilled they really are. This leads beginners to greatly overestimate their own ability. In many cases, it can lead a beginner to be more confident in their own skill than an expert.
I think this happens a lot, especially to me. Merlin continues in the video talking about advanced-beginners and subtly touches on how wikipedia and the internet can make us all advanced-beginners rather quickly. It’s pretty fascinating stuff and tangentially relates to all the natural talent/deliberate practice/relaxed concentration talk.
Tags: deliberate practice, psychology, relaxed concentration, talent