Meta-Work is Not The Work

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Jason Roberts discusses ~43:36 in Math Academy Podcast 5, Part 1:

“What work are you doing?

Tell me your day. Tell me what you are doing. Do you really need to do that?

Meta-work is not the work.

Brief writing, stuff you see in a corporate environment where you kind of cover your ass to show that you’re doing stuff.

It’s not the work.

It doesn’t impress me. I don’t give a shit. In fact, I’m annoyed.

When I see lots of meta work, I’m annoyed.

I mean, okay, create a document or a spreadsheet if you really need to, but as much of the effort and time as possible should be focused on doing the thing and not talking about the doing of the thing.

You see in a lot of companies, the focus becomes meta-work because of the politics and bureaucracy and it’s like nobody is doing anything.

Maybe one guy is doing stuff and everybody else is just talking about who’s doing what and what’s the plan and when this is going to be done.

Endless meetings and approval.

You know what? Everybody’s fired except that one guy.”

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