Well, That Was Humbling…

business, humor, lessons learned, Teaching and Education, technology 2 Minutes

I generally consider myself relatively tech-savvy; I try to keep up with the latest systems, developments, tools, and gadgets, I try new technologies when they come along, and I feel I pick up new technologies fairly quickly.

But as it turns out, when it comes to digital technologies, I’m in the worst stage of competence possible:

Unconscious incompetence – The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. In other words, I think I know a lot, but I really don’t.

How do I know this?

I just took PwC’s Digital Fitness assessment, and my score was a sobering 214 points out of 420. In academia, that would be an F. In PwC’s assessment tool, I am labeled as an “Explorer”. An Explorer is defined as follows:

“It sounds like you’re curious about digital and already embracing the ways it can change your life and work. Moving a little further from your comfort zone doesn’t have to be difficult: there are lots of ways you can continue to explore and learn more.”

It breaks your score down into four sections; here are my results for each of the sections:

Apparently, at least I have the right mindset, relatively speaking.

Once you take the assessment, which is freely available to anyone (see link below), it then offers you three different training options to help you become more digitally savvy:

  • Recreational – requires 20 minutes per week
  • Athletic – requires 40 minutes per week
  • Olympian – requires 60 minutes per week

I chose the recreational option, and plan to start my training tomorrow.

Hopefully, I can at least move to the second stage of competence:

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.

I’m not sure I’ll ever reach the final two stages:

3. Conscious competence 

4. Unconscious competence

The app is available from PwC, and after you take the assessment, which takes about 15 minutes, the app creates a personalized learning plan. The app enables you to learn at your own pace in a way that suits your style. You can watch, listen, or read your way to digital fitness. There are more than 60 subject areas covered in the app, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, cybersecurity, video gaming, and social media.

Perhaps if I stick with it, I’ll offer a follow-up post and let you know what the training was like.

I’m hoping that once I complete the training, I’ll be able to program a robot to do my blogging for me…

 

 

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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34 thoughts on “Well, That Was Humbling…”

  1. I have you beat, in one sense — I’m already at Conscious Incompetence. Digitally, I don’t understand squat. I am well aware of it. Good luck with the training. It would be interesting to know what the training is like, assuming I can understand it.

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  3. Savvy is not in my vocabulary when it comes to technology. I’m that guy who muddles his way through or calls a friend in desperation.

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  4. i love that you have stats on this, it’s giving you a leg up on your competency project. as for me, technology is ‘not my strong suit’ to put it mildly, and never will be. it has been a huge challenge for me in so many arenas, and i’ve chosen to focus my energies and emotions in other places, like badminton. keep us posted.

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    1. I admit I like having the stats 🙂
      well despite tech not being your strong suit, you seem to have mastered blogging and wordpress!
      and as to the badminton, it seems to be pretty big in Singapore. We would see people carrying their racquets on the trains, and we saw a couple of huge indoor badminton facilities…

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  5. I am unconsciously incompetent at making balloon animals, but they don’t have an app for that yet. I am going to safely assume that makes me unconsciously incompetent at digital balloon animals too. It seems logical. Your advanced age may be a part of your digital disability, but luckily you have Pat. That young man can walk you through anything that is holding you back. Great post, Jim. I look forward to a follow-up about your educational endeavors.

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    1. thanks, Brad. And yes, it is great having Pat around to keep me up to date with the latest tech stuff. And I don’t think it was anything for me to be proud of that I became unconsciously competent at balloon animals… 🙂

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      1. Hogwash, you should be proud of that uniquely creative gift. I have been practicing and have added yet another animal to my repertoire, the worm. Looks eerily similar to the snake and eel I have already mastered, but trust me it is different by design, if not by appearance. 😁

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      2. as long as you aren’t using a pump to blow up the balloons, then you are a legitimate balloon artist. and I’ll be sure to add those three animals to my repertoire… 🙂

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  6. I always thought an F was for Fabulous … I believe Competency is relative to former Self rather than comparatively to others, tests, evaluations, etc. Today you’ll be more competent at many things than you were yesterday.

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  7. This all sounds far too complicated for me! I think I’ll remain in my state of blissful ignorance, but I wish you well with the course. Those robot posts will be something to look forward to, and you could set up loads of fake Twitter accounts too 😉

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  8. I’m aware I’ve slipped badly since retiring – just couldn’t be bothered to go into stuff I didn’t think I’d need. I suffered from that when the Whittlesey Wordsmiths published our first anthology (since I was doing the formatting).
    I’ll have to give that test a go.

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    1. That seems to make sense; at some point we start to realize what we need to know and what we don’t need to know, and just focus on the former. I’d be curious to hear how you did on the assessment if you take it.

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  9. It’s on a need to know basis for me…I am also curious so did the assessment…My highest score was 60 on mindset..everything else was as I expected depressingly low..not really as I don’t profess to want to be that digitally aware…I have a grandson who is my go-to buddy and at my age and with my brain capacity it really is on a need to know basis but I look forward to seeing your completed robot, Jim…:)

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    1. thanks for letting me know how you did on the assessment; I am also fortunate to have three sons who are tech savvy, plus I am surrounded by college students all the time, many of whom I can turn to for help when needed (which is more and more often). I am looking forward to that robot as well 🙂

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  11. I’m awful at all things technology and I’m sure my score would be far worse than yours! Also I look forward to conversing with the robot at some point lol!

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