Metacognition

What Metacognition means

Metacognition is thinking about our own thinking: stepping back from a thought to ask how it was made and how far to trust it. The word is long and the definition short. Owning it changes the pace of our reactions. We start to notice the difference between knowing something and feeling that we know it, and we stop treating the feeling as proof. We begin to catch a reaction as it forms, which leaves a small gap in which to decide what to do with it. Before: the thought arrives and we act on it. After: the thought arrives, we notice it arriving, and the choice belongs to us. It does not make our thinking accurate; it makes it ours.

Not to be confused with

Metacognition is not introspection or mindfulness, though it borrows from both. Introspection looks at what we are feeling. Mindfulness notices it without judgement. Metacognition asks whether the way we are thinking about a problem is the right way, and changes it.

Metacognition examples: where it shows up

• At work: the confident plan we never stress-tested, because confidence felt like having stress-tested it.
• In our own careers: the skill we think we have mastered, judged by the ease of watching someone else do it.
• In a relationship: the pause between feeling slighted and replying, which is where every better answer we ever gave came from.

Where it sits

Concept 5 of 5 in Reality Deceives, a journey in the course The Examined Mind.

See where Metacognition sits on the sky →

Nearest on the sky

• Bayesian Thinking
• The Curse of Knowledge
• Dual-Process Theory
• Dunning-Kruger Effect
• Taste
• The Evening Review

A filled dot marks a star that is already open to walk.