Dr. F (Ian Williams) has an enjoyable piece in A Voice for Men. It begins with a story about an encounter with an old chap drinking grappa who tells him about the “four levels of knowing” or the Quattro livelli di conoscenza.
Now you have to understand I’m not retelling this moment with him as an earthbound Yoda or a swami in a cave with a beard as long as his name. This was just a man who knew something interesting and wanted to tell me about it and he did. Now I’m going to tell you about it and I’m using an analogy here with chess.
Level 1. Unconsciously Unaware:
When you are a toddler you know nothing of chess. You’ve never seen a chess board and you have never heard the word “chess” before. It’s here at level one you are not even aware that you know nothing of chess. You don’t know that you don’t even know.
Level 2. Consciously Unaware:
For the first time you see a chess game in play. Someone says “look, they’re playing chess.” You now know that there is a game called chess but you have no idea how to play it. You are at level two because you know that you are aware that you know nothing of chess. You know that you don’t know.
Level 3. Consciously Aware:
You are playing the game and you are very new at it. As you move each piece you have to remind yourself how each piece moves differently. The rules of the game are always in your mind, and it’s this that makes the play of the game a battle not on the board but in your head as you try to remember them. You not only know of chess, you can play it. This is the third level because you know that you know.
Level 4. Unconsciously Aware:
Years have past and you play at a competition level. You never give a thought about the rules and now you think of tactics only. While you play your mind may wander a moment to something else like a song or a conversation you’d had years before. You can think these things and play chess at the same time and your game is the same. You’re an expert. You’re at the highest level because when it comes to chess you are not aware that you’re thinking about the game while you’re playing it. You are so aware it has you asleep to how aware you are.
That’s just chess. There’s all the other things out there that have you at “competition level.” You tie your shoe laces up while wondering if warm beer’s better than cold. When you drive a car you listen to music and make words from the number plate in front of you.
Not an unfamiliar angle, but the whole piece is well worth reading.
6 comments:
In my youth the expression was used of having "internalised" some knowledge or knowhow. So you could - for example - pick up and use a slide rule without hesitation. You could speak French as if it were second nature. You had learnt to think like a physicist. You could move to a position on the pitch where the ball was going to arrive without conscious thought.
I used to enjoy chemistry labs, especially at university, because I was learning to master the use of the kit, the procedures, the logic. (In contrast I found chemistry lectures pretty dull.)
In Bell Ringing there is a thing called 'ropesight', and some insist that it is essential learn it but I have yet to encounter anyone who can effectively explain what it is. All the explanations amount only to tips of the trade, things you do when yuo have 'ropesight' rather than what it is or how to acquire it. Some time ago I came to the conclusion that it is what is described above as that fourth level. After six years I can at least know what I am trying to do.
Those four levels have been part of educational theory for some time - at least 20 years.
Chess … the enigma for a certain mindset.
dearieme - I came across it in tennis when I couldn't stop thinking about angles, net height, position of feet, best stroke to play and so on. I knew I should play without conscious thought and sometimes did, but never automatically.
djc - I don't think I'd ever acquire 'ropesight'. It sounds like one of those automatic coordination skills we might acquire after much practice, but the letting go and just doing it step sounds tricky.
Sam - in one form or another they are probably more ancient than we'll ever know. I like the story angle because we could teach something like that to kids.
James - it is an enigma. The very best players don't seem seem to know how they see good and bad moves and positions. They reach a level where they just see everything without much thought.
But 'ropesight' isn't about co-ordination, the physical rope handling part is not very difficult to learn. 'Ropesight' is more about keeping track of what everybody else is doing, and should be doing — like learning to drive, its not about controlling the vehicle, more staying aware of that dog.child/cyclist/pizza-delivery etc.
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