The expertise paradox MIT discovered (and how it's costing you)

Remember when you were new to consulting?

Every client interaction required conscious thought. You'd plan your questions, rehearse your approach, document each step.

You could explain EXACTLY what you did because you had to think about every move.

Now you walk into a client meeting and "just know" what's wrong. You navigate complex situations without thinking. Your clients get transformational results but when they ask about your methodology...

You freeze.

"Well, I just... look at the situation and... it depends on..."

Sound familiar?

MIT researchers Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus discovered why this happens. They mapped the journey from novice to expert and found something shocking:

The better you get, the less conscious access you have to your own expertise.

They called it the "expertise paradox" and it's costing you money.

Here's what happens:

Stage 1 (Novice): You follow rules consciously
​Stage 2 (Advanced Beginner): You recognize patterns with effort
​Stage 3 (Competent): You can plan and strategize
​Stage 4 (Proficient): You see situations holistically
​Stage 5 (Expert): You operate from intuition

That Stage 5 intuition is your most valuable asset. It's also completely unconscious.

Your expertise has become so automatic that you literally cannot access it through conscious thought. It's like asking someone to explain how they walk, the moment they think about it, they stumble.

This is why:

• Junior consultants package simple frameworks while you struggle to articulate decades of wisdom
• You say "it depends" when clients want clear methodology
• Your proposals undervalue your expertise (because you can't fully explain it)
• Scaling feels impossible when everything depends on your unconscious pattern recognition

But here's what the Dreyfus brothers missed: Just because expertise becomes unconscious doesn't mean it has to stay invisible.

​This Thursday at 11:30 AM EDT, I'm running a free 60-minute workshop where you'll extract 4 client-ready assets from your unconscious competence:

✓ An assessment tool that captures your diagnostic patterns
✓ A visual framework showing your invisible process
✓ A decision guide that systematizes your "it depends" moments
✓ A client worksheet that demonstrates your unique approach

No theory. No fluff. Just systematic extraction of what you already do brilliantly but can't explain.

You'll walk away with:

• 4 tangible tools you can use with clients immediately
• A glimpse of the 20-50 frameworks hiding in your unconscious expertise
• The extraction process that turns intuition into intellectual property

This is your first taste of what we do in Signal>Noise - but even these 60 minutes will change how you see your own expertise.

[Register for Thursday's free workshop]

Because your inability to explain your process isn't a weakness.

It's proof you've reached the highest level of mastery.

Time to make that mastery visible.

Stay Curious,

Check out my SubStack to become...

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