$4 dollar words

I was in an 𝕏 space last night and a woman uttered this phrase “I don’t trust a man that has to learn about masculinity from books.”

Hmm…

It struck a discordant tone with me immediately.

Essentially she was trying to say that if you are trying to be a more masculine man, reading a book isn’t going to help. You either are born with it or was taught at an early age and there’s no point in reading about something you’re already knowledgeable about,

Got it. 

But I also disagree.

In this particular instance especially. 

I’m a high testosterone male. My dad and grandpa taught me how to be a man. It’s ingrained in my DNA.

But I still read books like The Warrior Poet Way: A Guide to Living Free and Dying Well, which is an Army Ranger’s take on masculinity. 

Why?

Because I’m an Optimalist. 

And 3 of the Optimalist’s core values are wisdom, intentionality, and continuous learning. To gain true wisdom, you have to know yourself at a base level. And the only path to that state is through introspective learning. 

This is an extremely intentional path. One that involves a lot of internal work like journaling and studying what makes you tick, as well as external work like reading books on the topics you are trying to understand. 

In my example, even though I understand masculinity intimately I still study masculinity to better comprehend the nuances of my inherent traits. And, I’m genuinely interested in better understanding the origins and cultural aspects of masculinity.

Turns out there’s a psychological word for this as well: Metacognition.

It’s a $4 word that only means “above cognition.”

And like we’ve been talking about, the psychology community considers it one of the most powerful forms of self-monitoring/regulation.

When you start to learn about an inherent trait, you are using metacognition to analyze how you learn and understand this aspect of yourself.

The meta part comes in because you are “thinking about thinking” or “knowing about knowing.” 

To make better decisions and be the optimal version of yourself in every moment, you have to know yourself as a learner and the factors that will influence your performance. The more you know about yourself, the higher your metacognitive knowledge will be.

And the highest level of metacognitive knowledge should be your goal, the opinion of a Swedish woman on social media notwithstanding.

Long story short, don’t take any belief or trait that you possess for granted or as truth. Blindly following each belief is a psyop. 

Learn as much as you can and test them all. 

Swanagan “Let’s get metacognitive” Ray

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