And competence is relative. For example, if I judge my competence on trumpet compared to Maurice André or Dizzy Gillespie, I’m doomed to live forever in the unpleasant realm of Conscious Incompetence. I’ll never, ever be as good as either of those guys. At some point, you have to own both your competence and your incompetence. Cultivate a cautious disdain for the infinite ways you’re incompetent.
