Too much <i>meta</i> is bad, too little <i>meta</i> is also bad. If you live by 'meta murders', you're going to become a braindead doer, instead of a creative and insightful contributor. I believe that to find a good balance of meta in all things, we should simply look at meta-cognition and find balance there, and then extrapolate out.<p>I recommend checking out this article from Seed Magazine: <a href="http://seedmagazine.com/content/print/thinking_meta/" rel="nofollow">http://seedmagazine.com/content/print/thinking_meta/</a> :<p><i>Unless we are aware of our tendency to act irrationally in certain situations, then we’ll continue to act irrationally. That much is predictable.Although the mind is full of flaws, we can learn to outsmart them.</i><p>I think for an approach to productive use of meta discussion in these tech circles, we should begin by looking at the already existing strategies for utilizing meta-cognition for our benefit - like the ones listed here: <a href="http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/metacognition/start.htm" rel="nofollow">http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/metacognition/start.htm</a><p>In short, thinking about thinking, thinking about you think, are quite valuable, but do it wrong, do it too much, and you end up driving yourself nuts -- and say crazy things like <i>meta is murder</i> and run away from it....'I will not think, I think too much, will not think...will be braindead zombie not questioning what I'm doing...' -- also, your analysis of your thoughts isn't often that valuable to other people, which I think relates to why we find reading about bloggers telling us how they blog is kind of mmm, boring.
"Generally speaking, I am not a fan of the meta."<p>Ironic that he should say this, considering that a considerable portion of his communications relate to meta-discussions.
I think he just wants to ignore any criticism aimed at Stack Overflow. That's the impression I get from his comments on the meta site, anyway.<p>"LALALAL ITS FINE LALALA"
The thing about meta-discussion is, to an extent, it is people talking to hear themselves or each other talk.<p>That sounds terrible but is it? Suppose instead of just talking, people sang? Singing to hear yourself sing is wonderful. So the question isn't just whether you are accomplishing anything with meta-comments. The question is whether you either accomplishing or whether you are just enjoying what you're doing in a somewhat rich, creative or satisfying way. This seems more likely when the meta-discussion is humorous and good spirited than when it is angry and mean-spirited. But perhaps some people enjoy trying to destroy other people's intellectual position on some level or other.
Actually this is so spot on!<p>I ADMIT!
I have been living a meta-life for far too long now.
A life where I ponder about HOW I want to/should live my life.
In a sense it has given me much - a perceived knowledge and understanding about me, life and the world.
All in theory.
Lately in my meta-living I've come to the conclusion that that's just what it is. A meta-life.
I need to stop meta and go out there, to actually get things done.
Get practical.