The correct amount of time and effort to devote to the meta-level is not 100% (you don’t do anything useful), and not 0% (you don’t know how to do anything well). Somewhere in the middle is the optimal amount, and that amount will differ between people for all sorts of reasons. What do you think the optimal amount is for you, and why? That would essentially remove the problem this piece talks about from the piece itself, by tying the thinking back to a real world problem you’re trying to solve.
My optimal amount is likely 80 real, 20 meta. This is mostly because I’ve found that intellectual masturbation is easy, and trying to figure out the truth on an object-level issue is difficult (you actually need to do research), and so I default to the first one.
Incidentally, I think this is why “insight porn” authors are often prolific. It’s easy to generate “insight”—or at least, comparatively easier.
The correct amount of time and effort to devote to the meta-level is not 100% (you don’t do anything useful), and not 0% (you don’t know how to do anything well). Somewhere in the middle is the optimal amount, and that amount will differ between people for all sorts of reasons. What do you think the optimal amount is for you, and why? That would essentially remove the problem this piece talks about from the piece itself, by tying the thinking back to a real world problem you’re trying to solve.
My optimal amount is likely 80 real, 20 meta. This is mostly because I’ve found that intellectual masturbation is easy, and trying to figure out the truth on an object-level issue is difficult (you actually need to do research), and so I default to the first one.
Incidentally, I think this is why “insight porn” authors are often prolific. It’s easy to generate “insight”—or at least, comparatively easier.