Another thing that leads foolish ones into mocking at sin, is, because it doth not appear to them at present in its proper colours, it appears to them in Disguises, in Masks.
[J. Ryther (1677). A looking-glass for the wise and foolish, the godly & ungodly
If you're incompetent, you can't know you're incompetent ... The skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.
David Dunning (2005), Self-insight: Roadblocks and Detours on the Path to Knowing Thyself
I think [the use of ‘so’ at the beginning of a sentence] is a sign of someone who is not particularly fluent, it’s fulfilling the function of ‘ummm’ and ‘errrr’ and giving the person a bit longer. It’s not being used as a conjunction to join things up, which is how it should be used. I think someone started doing it and then other people have begun slavishly copying it, it becomes fashionable. It’s just carelessness, it doesn’t have any meaning when used this way.
Dr Bernard Lamb, President of the Queen’s English Society
The four stages of competence
- Unconscious incompetence
The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn.
- Conscious incompetence
Though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, they recognize the deficit, as well as the value of a new skill in addressing the deficit. The making of mistakes can be integral to the learning process at this stage.
- Conscious competence
The individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires concentration. It may be broken down into steps, and there is heavy conscious involvement in executing the new skill.
- Unconscious competence
