What's the most important thing to learn on the job? What makes somebody a valuable employee, a leader, a prime contributor, somebody worth fighting for, a first-round draft choice?
Metaknowledge --- the ability to understand problems, to know:
- what issues are globally the most important;
- which questions can be answered and which ones can't;
- how to approach various types of problem;
- what degree of accuracy is needed for a solution to be "good enough";
- how much effort to devote to each aspect of the larger task;
- what alternative paths are available if a preferred route is blocked;
- who has seen a similar challenge before and can help figure out this one;
... and so forth. Specific answers are helpful; metaknowledge is critical.
(correlates: PartOfTheProverb, CommonCompSciSense, SeeingThought, ...)
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