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ricksunnytoday at 6:00 AM2 repliesview on HN

happy to display that I'm clued-out, but what does 'meta' mean in this context? Clearly not the company, nor the general 'meta' modifier to something to describe qualifying criteria about it, like meta data for phone calls. it sounds closer to the term 'alpha' that investors use to describe competitive advantage (and even that term I wonder about).


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etskinnertoday at 6:15 AM

Meta is short for metagame. In videogames, and even in some sports, there are decisions made above/outside of the typical strategy of the game which players call metagame. For example, drafting players in football is metagaming. Or choosing what pickleball paddle to use is metagame.

An expanded view of that is that there's usually a "current" meta strategy that people tend to adhere to, kind of like a convention. And if you stray from that, you lose, even if your strategy would succeed in a vacuum.

For example, if the current meta is for employers to mainly use referrals/networking to hire, it would be a bad strategy to apply to postings.

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WiggleGuytoday at 6:04 AM

Very popular term in gaming

https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/what-does-meta-mean-in-...

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