The three levels

The three levels are the load-bearing definitions of the whole method — everything from self-assessment to promotion runs through them. They're written so you can place yourself without guessing.

Beginner. You know the basics — say, right after an online course or a book. You can do it, but you need help or a lot of documentation along the way.

Confident. You have hands-on experience. You do most tasks and deliver on your own, reaching for docs or help only on the less common parts.

Expert. You have considerable experience. You handle almost everything without help, looking things up only for the obscure or uncommon cases. A useful framing: an expert is confident enough to teach others.

Two footnotes that matter more than they look:

Even experts look things up. Skills evolve; needing materials or research at any level is normal and expected. "Expert" never means "memorised everything" — that bar would be both impossible and pointless.

The invisible zero. Under the hood, a skill is stored at level 0, 1, 2, or 3 — where 0 simply means "no level" (a yes/no skill). It is not a secret rung below beginner, and it's never shown to people. Humans only ever see beginner / confident / expert, or a plain yes/no.

One cultural note: the level names can be adapted. "Beginner / confident / expert" travels well across cultures precisely because the steps are broad; finer gradations (five-point scales, percentage mastery) tend to spark debates the method is designed to avoid. If the words don't fit your culture, change the words — keep the three broad steps.