solarbird | (Reply)

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Thanks for an interesting blog and introducing me to the term "metacognition". It describes, for me, a missing piece I've struggled with in working with people to develop their expertise in various areas. Here I'd define metacognition broadly as a broad awareness of the scope and requirements of the problem domain. More specifically it's the ability to think a level above (since "meta-" means up or above) any one particular approach to solving a problem. People with good metacognitive ability will try one approach, gauge how well it's working within the scope and requirements of the problem, and pause to gather more data and/or change approaches if it's not working well enough. People with weak metacognitive ability demand that expertise be distilled down to step-by-step instructions, which they'll then dutifully follow even as they step off a proverbial cliff.