The problem with incompetence

The problem with incompetence is that we are so often blind to our own. After all, we can only judge how good we are at something from what current knowledge we have. Sometimes we are just so ignorant that we aren't even aware of the silent ocean of relevant stuff we don't know.

I'm not just talking about work. Although, how often have you come across a superior who seems to have very little idea what was going on? Our blindness to our own incompetence applies equally to our daily lives, the husband who calls his wife lazy because she just stays home all day looking after the house and their young kids. Not ever having done her job, he is completely incompetent to make that statement.

Oh how our blindness to our incompetence plagues our lives! Its as though life is a series of episodes where we go from blindness to realising how blind we are and then were as we learn. I recall, after getting my bachelor degrees and getting my first 'real' job, thinking that I was finally now on par with all the older adults in my family who were always so eager to dish out advice. At a family gathering after being reminded to keep check of my over-zealous sense of justice at work, I declared to my aunts and uncles that there was no longer anything I could learn from them. LOL

It was only after giving birth to my darling girl that I realised how much more they knew than me. Sure, they may not subscribe to New Scientist Magazine or have a PhD in philosophy but I couldn't write off wisdoms accumulated from just life. So I guess you could say I was a late bloomer in that regards - too focused on making decisions in my life in a very pragmatic way.  

Having my baby, opened my eyes to a whole other side of being human which I never considered. For the first time I understood some of the things my mum did which used to seem illogical to me.

But there is a plus side to our blindness, each time we realise our incompetence, we gain a little bit more humility and a little bit more empathy.

I currently think I'm travelling pretty wisely...but time will prove me wrong.