Recently, I saw a Maslow’s theory about four levels of competence and how they relate to a mastery of a subject. It also reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell “10,000 hours” meme which says that in order to excel at something you really need to practice it, and by that he means consciously practice it, for at least 10,000 hours. Here they are:

1. Unconscious Incompetence – you don’t know that you don’t know something
2. Conscious Incompetence – you are now aware that you are incompetent at something
3. Conscious Competence – you develop a skill in that area but have to think about it
4. Unconscious Competence – you are good at it and it now comes naturally

BTW, I wonder how creativity (as in photography and film-making, or art in general) relates to this concept. Is it only possible to be creative after achieving the last step of unconscious competence when all processes and techniques related to the craft become internalized and “second nature” to us? Or, is creativity completely independent of our level of competence?

In any case, for now, it looks like I have a long road ahead of me (and a steep learning curve) in terms of mastering moving pictures as opposed to stills. Here, I’m definitely at stage one, whereas in photography, I like to believe I could be somewhere around the level three;) But this road ahead of me, of discovering and pushing my own creative boundaries, is where all the excitement lies…