mtcg-metacognition

name	mtcg - Metacognition
description	Thinking about your own thinking. Observes your current cognitive strategy, assesses whether it's working, checks for active biases, and decides whether to continue or switch approaches.
output	{"format":"prose"}

Metacognition

Input: $ARGUMENTS

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Step 1: Observe Your Current Strategy

Before improving your thinking, notice what you're currently doing.

• What cognitive approach are you using right now?
• Did you choose it deliberately, or did you default into it?
• How long have you been using this approach?

CURRENT STRATEGY: [name or describe the approach you're taking]
CHOSEN OR DEFAULT: [deliberate / autopilot]
TIME INVESTED: [how long you've been at it]
WHAT TRIGGERED THIS APPROACH: [why you started thinking this way]

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Step 2: Assess Whether It's Working

Honest evaluation of your current cognitive process:

• Progress check: Are you getting closer to an answer, or going in circles?
• Clarity check: Is the problem getting clearer or murkier as you think?
• Effort check: Does the difficulty feel productive (good struggle) or stuck (spinning wheels)?
• Output check: What have you produced so far? Is it useful?

ASSESSMENT:
- Progress: [advancing / stalled / regressing]
- Clarity: [increasing / stable / decreasing]
- Effort: [productive struggle / diminishing returns / stuck]
- Output so far: [useful / partially useful / not useful]
- VERDICT: [strategy is working / strategy needs adjustment / strategy should change]

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Step 3: Identify Alternative Strategies

What else could you be doing? List at least 3 alternative cognitive approaches:

Strategy	When it works best	Cost of switching
Break it down	Problem is too large to hold in mind	Low — start decomposing
Zoom out	Lost in details, missing the big picture	Low — ask "what's the real question?"
Zoom in	Big picture is clear but details are fuzzy	Low — pick one piece to examine
Analogize	Stuck on a novel problem	Medium — need to find good analogy
Invert	Direct approach isn't working	Medium — ask "what would make this fail?"
Simulate	Can't reason abstractly	Medium — walk through a specific example
Abandon and restart	Deep in a wrong frame	High — lose sunk work
Ask for input	Your perspective is limited	Depends — need the right person

ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED:
1. [strategy] — would help because [reason]. Cost: [low/medium/high]
2. [strategy] — would help because [reason]. Cost: [low/medium/high]
3. [strategy] — would help because [reason]. Cost: [low/medium/high]

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Step 4: Bias Check

Scan for cognitive biases that may be active right now:

• Anchoring: Am I fixated on the first piece of information I encountered?
• Confirmation: Am I only looking for evidence that supports what I already think?
• Sunk cost: Am I continuing this approach because I've already invested time?
• Availability: Am I overweighting what comes to mind easily?
• Dunning-Kruger: Am I more or less confident than my actual understanding warrants?
• Framing: Would I think differently if this were presented another way?

ACTIVE BIASES:
- [bias name]: [how it's showing up in your current thinking]
...
CORRECTION: [what to adjust]

NO BIASES DETECTED: [if clean, note what you checked]

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Step 5: Decide — Continue or Switch

Based on Steps 2-4, make a deliberate choice:

DECISION: [continue current strategy / adjust current strategy / switch to new strategy]
REASONING: [why this is the right move]

If switching:

NEW STRATEGY: [what you'll do instead]
FIRST MOVE: [concrete next step]
SUCCESS SIGNAL: [how you'll know the new strategy is working within [timeframe]]

If continuing:

ADJUSTMENT: [any tweaks to current approach]
CHECKPOINT: [when you'll reassess — e.g., "after 10 more minutes" or "after completing step X"]

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Step 6: Monitor Comprehension

Final check on your understanding:

• What do you understand clearly?
• What do you understand partially?
• What are you confused about?
• What don't you know that you don't know? (Can you even guess?)

COMPREHENSION MAP:
- CLEAR: [what you understand well]
- PARTIAL: [what you understand roughly but couldn't explain precisely]
- CONFUSED: [what you're stuck on]
- UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS: [areas where you suspect gaps but can't specify them]

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Step 7: Metacognitive Summary

WHAT I WAS DOING: [original strategy]
WHAT I FOUND: [assessment result]
WHAT I'M DOING NOW: [continue / adjust / switch]
BIASES CAUGHT: [list or "none detected"]
COMPREHENSION LEVEL: [high / medium / low / mixed]
NEXT CHECKPOINT: [when to re-run /mtcg]

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Integration

Use with:

• /prcp -> Improve perception as an alternative cognitive strategy
• /rskl -> Check reasoning quality when metacognition reveals logical issues
• /jdgm -> Apply structured judgment when metacognition says "just decide"
• /sdc -> Deeper self-diagnostic if metacognition reveals persistent patterns
• /ecal -> Calibrate confidence levels surfaced during bias check