Why I procrastinate by thinking about frameworks instead of sharing my opinions
When I take notes, I look at how I work and the workflows. I try to find how to take more and better notes. This makes me feel productive and competent. But this meta-work is also what keeps me safe. Why do I keep choosing meta-work over real work?
When I’m productive on the safe meta-level, I avoid the risks of the practical level. When I form and publish my opinions I take the risk that will lead to real competence.
Meta-work keeps me safe. When I create a framework for myself, the only thing that is important is if it is useful. If it works, it is productive and I can feel competent. By staying in the safety of my home, working on a framework about note-taking, the framework will not call me dumb. Frameworks don’t judge.
Meta-work shows my competence. When working on the meta-level I don’t need opinions. The frameworks do the work and that shows competence, that is something I can test. And criticism of the framework is not about me. I don’t need to prove myself, the meta-level does the work. The real fear is that if people knew what I actually think, they’d see I’m not as smart as I believe I am.
Real work shows I’m irrelevant and invisible. When I have an opinion about the books I read and try to share it, that is when I can notice that people don’t even care. What’s worse than being wrong? Being irrelevant. And even when I wrote for 21 years I can still be invisible to the world. No one thinks I’m wrong, because no one knows my website exists.
So, avoiding real work with meta-work keeps us safe and protected. But when we take the step to leave the safety of structure and frameworks, that will bring us to where we can finally discover whether our ideas are worth having.