Nollind Whachell

The Metacognition Revolution – Sponsor Content – Google

AI is Playing a Central Role in Reshaping How We Learn

www.theatlantic.com

This is it!

This is what I gave space for “something to emerge” over my last handful of posts and something did actually emerge. My mind is blown away by this synchronicity.

This article effectively explains what I’ve been intuitively doing for the last year or so, ever since Inflection’s Pi was released in May 2023, but I just couldn’t articulate why it felt so deeply important to me. At best, I described it as a process whereby the AI is helping you to “adventure within yourself” which in turn helps you with your growth and development. (Actually I may have even saved a conversation with Pi that does explain the why behind this all but I never shared it because I was too afraid to do so at the time.)

The following quote perfectly explains what I’m going through right now. Not “moments of confusion” as the article indicates but rather long bouts of confusion, followed by momentary bursts of insight. This is exactly how I feel doing my work right now and why it feels like I’m doing something wrong and or unnatural. But it’s not unnatural, even though it feels like it is, but rather a normal part of the process.

Imagine, for a moment, an assignment where the “deliverable” isn’t a polished essay, but a student’s entire revision history, including AI tutor interactions. This record would provide a window into their process of discovery and iteration, revealing the messy, non-linear reality of learning. It’s an approach that aligns with what we know about how learning actually happens—not in smooth, predictable increments, but in fits and starts, with moments of confusion followed by bursts of insight. This personalized approach to learning is one of AI’s most promising features.

This focus on metacognition has helped many educators illuminate gaps in understanding that might otherwise go unnoticed. … By highlighting these gaps, AI prompts students to reflect on their own understanding in new ways. They’re not just identifying what they don’t know, but understanding why they don’t know it and how they might go about learning it.

The above quote effectively embodies vertical development. When you face a life challenge that you can’t resolve with your current worldview, you are effectively facing cognitive dissonance on a macro, life scale. Thus it creates a massive “gap” in your life that can’t be resolved with what you currently “know” in terms of your knowledge. And instead it can only be understood and learnt by stepping into the unknown of it and actually experiencing it to make sense and meaning of it.

The promise of AI in education isn’t about replacing human thought, but about enhancing it. It’s about creating tools that allow us to see our own minds more clearly, to understand our own learning processes more deeply. In the end, this AI-driven focus on metacognition may be preparing students not just for the jobs of the future, but for the lifelong journey of learning itself. By teaching students not just what to think, but how to think about their thinking, we may be unlocking the true potential of education in the AI age.

Vertical development is a lifelong journey which over time unlocks your true potential.

What does my recent realization about cognitive dissonance and critical thinking, in terms of how people often can’t deal with the tension of it and need to resolve the uncertainty and ambiguity of it, relate to my beliefs and assumptions about how I feel inadequate and stuck due to not making headway with my own life’s work?

What if I let go of trying to immediately resolve this uncertainty and ambiguity of why I’m feeling stuck, by not immediately assuming I’m useless and without value, which is just my ego toxically bossing me around.

In doing so, I can possibly create the space of something else to emerge. Perhaps something that can help me to understand what I’m going through in an entirely new way.

This conversation below with Claude.ai arose out of a conversation I had with my wife about something seemingly simple, that being where a new F1 racing driver would be driving in 2025. In my discussion with my wife, I was just trying to relay some new verified news I had heard about a new driver and she immediately didn’t believe it, relaying what she had heard and believed instead. Finally after I did some further digging, I clarified the situation and the status of the new driver which she seemed to accept.

What I realized afterwards was that we were both encountering cognitive dissonance but we were each dealing with it in different ways. When she heard the news I relayed, she immediately disbelieved it, even though it was verified news. When she told me what she knew and believed, however, I didn’t choose one or the other, even though the different information seemingly conflicted with one another. Instead I just held onto the ambiguity and uncertainty for a few minutes and just went exploring for more information.

This in a nutshell is how cognitive dissonance works on a micro scale but also on a macro scale as well. But on the macro scale this ability to hold onto ambiguity and uncertainty for much longer periods of time is critical in trying to resolve the cognitive dissonance one is experiencing. One may have to do this for days, weeks, months, or even years.

Just share what you’re learning as you’re learning it.

This is the current adage.

Yet what is the point of sharing what I’m learning here, if it feels like and probably looks like a constant maze to others, especially as one traverses towards the higher levels of consciousness?

Update: This explains why.

The other day I woke up from a stress dream, one filled with anxiety at trying to get someplace by a certain time. I’ve had these before, at least one additional one in the last few months or so, and this one was so bad, I woke up, chuckled to myself, and said, “Geez, these dreams are killing me.”

The dream itself was trying to get to a hotel room a few blocks away by a certain time, so I could meetup with my family and we could all go to the airport and leave on a flight together.

Getting to the hotel by running a few blocks was fairly easy but when I got into the lobby, the hotel was having some charity event and it was full of people. I somehow forget my room number, so I had to line up and ask the hotel clerk what room I was staying in. He reminded me that my room number was on my room key and I laughed at myself for my forgetfulness and ran for the elevator.

When the elevator appeared, it was three quarters full with one lady bringing up a bunch of items for the charity event. Squeezing on to the elevator, I was followed by another lady with buggy, who proceeded to try to get on by ramming her buggy into my knees. I kept yelling at her to stop but she kept doing so and finally squeezed on.

Finally the elevator went up and proceeded to open at the floor above my floor because I had forgotten to push my floor number. Running out of the elevator, I turned to the stairwell doorway, only to find an under construction sign and the stairway being completely rebuilt. However, in squeezing through the wood, I was able to get on a makeshift stairwell and walked precariously down to my floor.

Doing so, I was greet by another under construction sign and a wooden wall barricading access to my floor. By this time, I’ve completely had it and completely freaked out in my dream shouting, “Are you fricken kidding me!!!” At which point, I woke up.

When reflecting upon this later in the morning and thinking about how Zen Buddhism sees life as an illusionary dream, I realized that just like how in my dreams, obstacles were popping up in front of me, blocking my way, so too it seemed that obstacles were popping up in front of me in my life and blocking me.

At the same time, I wondering if it’s because I feel like time is running out in my life and I have to rush to finish my life’s work. Yet in trying to rush and finish it, effectively running around in circles in my head, it feels like I am effectively getting nowhere fast.

All said and done, what I’m trying to say here is that, just like within my stress dream, I’m apparently The One creating the obstacles before me in my own life.

In effect, I’m running around in my head so fast, that I’m not aware of my own cognitive surroundings of knowledge already within my own head.

Again this feeling like, “The answer is out there.” But in reality, it’s not. It’s already within you. You just have to slow down and still yourself enough to become aware of it and see it.

When I was reflecting upon the quotes from the last article I read on toxic bosses, something struck me as rather odd.

They sounded how I felt with regards to my own life’s work.

Our ongoing research indicates that employees under toxic bosses experience decreased confidence, self-esteem, motivation and engagement. They feel stuck, helpless, detached, disengaged, lose passion and commitment to their work..

Does this mean I have an ego which is toxically bossing me around?

This would fit in perfectly as to why I would feel stuck, as my ego would be standing in my way.

The problems aren’t out there. They’re within me. They’re my perception.

There aren’t any problems to be avoided but rather lessons to be learnt. Life is trying to teach me something, so that I can level up, learn, and grow. (This is the paradox of the Hero’s Journey.)

Stop saying, “Why am I stuck here?” Start saying, “I’m exactly where I need to be. What am I supposed to be learning here?”

I am the one guiding and leading my “self” on these quests because I am the one questioning my assumptions and beliefs.

As long as I am questioning my world(view), I am on the right quest. 

I’m going in circles, like I’m inside a maze, because I’m unable to step back from it and be aware of the paradoxical twist and turns within it.