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.

^z - 2000-07-15

(correlates: PartOfTheProverb, CommonCompSciSense, SeeingThought, ...)