Let’s bring back our picture of the circle of competence again:
Per that model and diagram, what you know is a proper subset of what you think you know. What about the difference between those sets though, essentially what you think you know minus what you do know?
This is about the shaded area in the following diagram.
In the previous post, I referred to that area as one of ignorance. If we want to reduce that, there are two approaches.
- Add to the inner set. This means to do the work necessary to increase your circle of competence. You deepen your knowledge in areas that you did not understand as clearly as you thought you did. “Having tested my ideas against some experts in the field, I came away with important insights and identified work I needed to do to help me deepen my understanding.”
- Subtract from the outer set. Realizing you do not understand an area as well as you thought you did, you do not deepen your knowledge about it, but rather change your belief about it. “This is outside my field.” or “I used to be great at this, but have not worked in this area in years and it has changed a lot. I am no longer up to date and it is not something I will prioritize.”
Either way, we get to reduce the difference between the two sets, which results in assumed competency more closely matching actual competency.
Which of the two is preferable depends on you and the situation you find yourself in. For either to be possible, you have see, i.e. be able to tell what circle (set) a subject matter falls into — and the options available to you.