Reaction to my YouTube playlist on the topic “Meta-competencies”: Part 1 (Preamble, Introduction, List)

It’s morning. I am in my small, cozy attic apartment. The first coffee of the day is brewed and stands in a large cup with the inscription “Crisis Manager” next to me. I will drink it shortly, as I had a large amount of vegetable juice earlier and am now initially full, too full even for a single sip of coffee.

Today, a first rough draft of my text on metacompetencies must be completed. The main thing is that I write something down; I can no longer delay this work. But where do I start? My thoughts are jumping back and forth. I want to delve deeply before discussing my videos saved as a YouTube playlist, exploring where my interest in this topic comes from.

In an old black-and-white photo, Grandpa’s garden is visible. In the background is a cottage, in the middle a paved path, and on both sides are vegetable beds. On this path, a toddler is walking towards the camera, stumbles, and reaches forward. It appears to be happy, excited, and curious.

We are walking along the creek. Only Karsten is wearing rubber boots. Ahead of us is a warning sign. Depicted on it are a tidal wave and a man appearing helpless, stumbling, and threatened to be swept away by a tidal wave, a tree whose roots reach down to the creek, a powerful canopy of leaves; the sun finds its way through in places. Behind it, a building, a row of windows, my classroom on the top right on the first floor. Mrs. Derendorf sends Eva and me out into the hall; we are supposed to explain something to each other. Back at my place, in the back left, the class seems to be over. In front of me, the students turn around, look at me, laugh; I must have been lost in thought. Mrs. Derendorf smiles at me, speaks of the contemplative immersion of a philosopher.

It is already afternoon. Yet, I am still lying in bed. It is uncomfortable. The window is cracked open and dimmed. The S-Bahn can be heard at regular intervals. It comes from the south, that is, from Cologne, briefly passes the only station in Langenfeld, and then continues on to Düsseldorf. Its operational noises do not bother me in the slightest. Quite the contrary, I have become so accustomed to them that I miss them when I sleep elsewhere.

The alarm clock rings again. No idea how many times I have already hit the snooze button. Now I will stay awake. My arms are crossed behind my head, a rather uncomfortable support so that I don’t have to look at the blanket, and my gaze can wander around the room. No, it has not been enough rest. Roll over to the side into the fetal position and fall asleep just one more time. Suddenly, the front door can be heard from the ground floor, slamming shut. My mother has been at work and is now back. So, it is already 2:00 p.m., and I must leave.

I gather my courage, go to the desk, turn on my new architect lamp, and just think for a while. My gaze falls on the bookshelf. I don’t have many books yet. Most of them have been schoolbooks so far, and I had to read them. Slowly I am getting used to the idea that there is no book I cannot read, that it’s my decisions, and I can read whatever I want, and also determine the timing and manner of reading myself. There stands Joyce’s “Ulysses”, because one of the Gilmore Girls mentioned it, “Moby Dick”, because Captain Jean-Luc quotes it, Nietzsche’s most important works, because I have always liked the sound of his name, and also Aristotle’s “Metaphysics”, as the title sounds like something you can show off with. I am now picking it up again, once more and certainly not for the last time. I barely understand anything. And that’s okay. Otherwise, the author would have to learn from me. I want to read for at least another 30 minutes before I go downstairs. At least a few pages with concentration, otherwise, I haven’t earned the first coffee.

A little later, in the kitchen, my mother around the corner in the living room, we say hello without being able to see each other. She has sat down, is relaxed, and asks me out of the blue if I would like to hear a puzzle. She got it from her boss, couldn’t solve it, and is curious to see how I will fare. It goes: “22 + 4 = 2”. I get no more information. Anything more would be help, it would make it easier for me, but then I could no longer claim to have solved it.

The puzzle is compact, short, easy to remember; I can easily take it with me. Now I must go. Currently, I work in a warehouse, the main hub of a supermarket chain. In a hall, which is several football fields large, I am on a pallet jack, a so-called “ant”, moving around. The work is mostly mechanical, almost to be done in one’s sleep. There is plenty of time to think. For example, about the riddle, my mother’s boss – maybe it has something to do with football, after all, he originally wanted to become a sports reporter. And two teams consist of 22 players, but what do I do with the “4” and the “2”… My gaze falls on everything that I encounter while driving through the aisles. I’ve been on this planet for three decades now, had preschool times full of bedtime stories, rules, commands, experiences, elementary school, high school, further training – although most of it is learned alongside school and work – but now a “children’s puzzle”, and I have no idea what to do.

Some people collect stamps, others cars, and I have chosen mainly books, documents, and texts, etc. While I was digitally strolling on YouTube, and a video caught my eye that somehow had to do with puzzles or more generally with problems, techniques for solving them, etc., I saved it in a playlist called “Meta”. Over time, about 250 videos have landed in this list, and now I want to briefly discuss them all. In terms of form, it will be a reaction video. In the end, we will have gained a nice overview. In a second part, I discuss in a similar, brief manner all my articles saved in Pocket. Thirdly, I go through all my texts saved as PDFs. I would like to conclude this overview series with my 10 favorites, whether book, video, or online text should then play no role.

Sometimes an item from the list is not directly related to a problem-solving technique. Maybe I just found a person inspiring, something motivating, or did not pay attention to which playlist the video was saved in. But for the most part, there should be a connection to metacompetencies!

Let’s get started.