Meta Is Murder

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83

For someone who is so against blogging about blogging you sure do it A LOT.

84

Seems to me that the infinite layers of meta and the level crossing between them is the essence of intelligence. Building software is also a task of tackling the meta as we continue to build more and more layers of abstraction. However, perhaps the concept of social meta is indeed a buzz kill.

85

Are all comments meta?

We’re all murderers!

:open_mouth:

86

I just spent 10 minutes looking for a “META IS MURDER” T-shirt before I realized that you had modified a “MEAT IS MURDER” one. D’oh.

I think a good META IS MURDER shirt would sell pretty well, incidentally. I’m an academic and META IS MURDER there as well (there is a good deal of talking about talking about talking, and there are quite a few of us who find that to be a bit unproductive).

Make it! Sell it to me! Come on, capitalism, do that thang!

87

…and, if I can say so, there is no community that illustrates the dangers of excessive meta-discussion than Wikipedia, where meta-discussion and meta-bureaucracy can, at any given time, threaten the productivity of the entire enterprise (and drive many a hard-working content producer away).

Obviously, SOME meta-discussion can be useful. A little bit of reflexivity sharpens the craft and allows one to come to terms with the means of production. Not inherently a bad thing, if done in the spirit of actually facilitating further production. Which unfortunately is more often not the end result.

(On a more “meta” point—the ReCAPTCHA bit fails to show up a good portion of the time on Safari 4 for me. “Can’t find host” error. Means I am locked out of posting a comment a good portion of the time. Lots of reloading to try and get it work. Time ticks by. Kind of sucks. Just sayin’.)

88

“Triple-meta alert! That blog entry was me blogging about blogging about blogging.”

If blogging about blogging is meta, then blogging about that is double-meta, not triple meta.

This is triple meta :slight_smile:

89

How many people have had to attend meetings about meetings before. Meta discussions take that into the digital/typed in format. The only problem is with speaking out loud most can tell when they’re boring everyone else. On discussion pages that’s not the case and making a point can take 5x longer.

90

I think thinking about Hofstadter is great.

91

Yo, dawg, I heard you like blogging. So we made a blog about blogging so you can blog while you blog… ¬¬

92

Just wanted to say - love your blog posts and have been following “silently” for a couple of years. I love the practicality. Even this “meta” one is inherently practical: the message is - “do stuff; don’t unnecessarily talk about doing stuff”. (Some of my workplaces would benefit from such a message. LOL). Keep up the good work.

93

Good article :stuck_out_tongue:

I like the example about the podcast website… Similarly:
When I surf for programming stuff, finally find a forum thread that seems to be exactly my problem: you have the local forum whore who immediately steps in to say something like “you posted in the wrong section!”… Yea, well not everyone has time to hang around the forum all day for fun’s sake… Then the conversation becomes an argument about the validity or placement of the topic.
Then you have to quickly read threw a dozen posts about writing without typos or posting in the right forum section, or why the topic starter is even asking such a question; you end up with nothing but 5 minutes wasted…

94

Like Darryn, I also spotted ‘metadone’, although I disagree that it’s a good pun, because in the context of “Getting Things Metadone”, it’s pronounced too differently from ‘methadone’.

Still, can it really just be a coincidence that ‘metadone’ and ‘methadone’ differ by only one letter? (Actually, I think it can.)

95

What the hell is ‘social’ software? Like social hardware such as a handgun?

Your article sounds like management meetings about management meetings. Bureaucracy loves meta!

96

I thought this was going to be about the ridiculous amount of meta data Vis Studio generates, you know this being a programming blog; but no, just some complaining about other people’s blogs.

97

Did you just blog about blogging about blogging about blogging? i think you did… I’m going to go and sit down…

98

It’s all about meth.

99

@wisecrack: I was gonna comment about meta-comments myself but decided to do find-in-page if others posted about meta-comments, kinda proving your point :stuck_out_tongue:

100

@alex dante:

I clap for your final recognition. I cry for your lack of ability to get something out of his posts and the responses they bring. I personally love coding horror. For his “insights” and his commenters “insights.”

Good day to you sir.

Captcha: “onism hoffmann” onism?

101

I thought metamorph meant a change in form, as from caterpillar to pupa to imago.

Word verification: nadirs. How apt.

102

wow there are a lot of negative comments. this must be the least popular ch post ever.

i liked the story about the podcast gear forum. i’ve definitely showed up late at forums and found that nobody wanted to talk about what they’re supposed to talk about anymore.

but my reaction has been to just check out. i never sign up for forums anymore. i just treat them as a readonly catalog of information.