Automaticity Paradox

Here is the paradox in one line: the better you become at something, the less you can explain how you do it.

Ask a master typist where the letters are and watch her stumble. Her fingers know; her tongue does not. Skill, once learned, is packed away below the floor of consciousness, where it runs fast and cheap. That is the whole point of practice — to make the difficult automatic.

The trouble begins when the expert must teach, or when conditions change. What runs below the floor cannot be inspected, and what cannot be inspected cannot be adjusted or handed on. This is why great players are often poor coaches, and why we drive into a ditch on the day the road layout changes.

The lesson: mastery needs two floors. Let the skill run below — but once in a while, open the trapdoor and look at it. Unexamined automaticity is one surprise away from becoming a rut.