Mad about Meta

Meta kills. Meta is pain. Meta is misery.

OK, that’s a bit of hyperbole. But the fact remains is that all too often during the design and development of a new software idea, I get tangled up in meta considerations. For example, one requirement might be “Users must log in.” So I see an Account class, and the data associated with the account table in the database, and then I wonder “who manages accounts?” — instant meta. This turns into meta-about-meta, ad nauseum. For some reason I always get stymied.

I see a couple solutions:

  1. Immediately stop, and think YAGNI.
  2. Rethink why I get stymied when I get into meta-mode. Maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something?

Leave a Reply