Big ideas: Upgrading Your Brain’s Feedback Loop

Have you ever caught yourself mid-thought and wondered, Why am I thinking this way? That moment, brief, subtle and often overlooked, is more powerful than it seems. Psychologists call it metacognition. It is essentially your brain stepping back to examine itself in action.

I came across the musings of a writer recently who experienced this while working on a book. She had just typed a sentence that sounded wonderfully sophisticated, the kind that feels clever as it leaves your fingertips. But something felt off. When she paused and asked herself why she liked the sentence so much, the truth became clear. It sounded intelligent, but it was not actually clear. She had been writing to impress rather than to communicate.

That small realisation shifted everything. Instead of asking “Does this make me sound smart?” she began asking questions that mattered more. “Is this clear? Will the reader understand it? Am I assuming too much?” By paying attention not only to what she was writing but to how she was thinking while writing, her work and her learning improved.

This is metacognition in action. It is learning not just from experience, but from noticing the way you interpret experience.