[DowsingSpoon]

This article does not make it clear what a metaproject actually is. That said, I _believe_ the author is describing a concept similar to something I do. Choose a very small number of open-ended, broad projects. Each project should basically be an endless well of work. Moving the metaproject forward involves finishing several sub-projects, each of which is a respectable weekend or holiday project all on its own. A good choice for metaproject allows for a choice between a wide variety of new and interesting things to work on.

Get bored or stuck? Do something else. There’s so many things to do. You’re still working on the same metaproject.

Find something cool online that you want to experiment with? Find a way to frame it as an experiment or project under the umbrella of the metaproject.

For example, my overarching project is to develop my own computer system, from the custom CPU, up to the operating system and applications, as completely from scratch as possible. This has led me to learn more about Verilog, electronics, soldering, computer architecture, RISC-V, emulators, you name it.

At one point, I decided I needed to design my own high-level language for this thing. The compiler has itself become a metaproject where there’s always something to work on: parsing, lexing, optimization passes, experiments in syntax, garbage collectors, writing a debugger, etc.

Someday soon, I hope to be able to start a project to build video hardware with a sprite engine, like in those old 8-bit and 16-bit game systems. I’ll mentally bill this under the umbrella of “working on my computer project.”

I’ve been thinking of “that computer project” as a kind of life project that I’ll plug away on here and there until the day I die.

I wonder if this is how those old men who build boats feel about their boat. Hey, there’s my own catchy phrase right there: “Build your boat”

[solomonb]

The article defines it through an example:

> You've been wanting to take cooking classes, but you've also been wanting to join an improv group. If you don't have time/resources for both of these projects, you might choose a metaproject like "weekly dinner party with funny friends" -- it doesn't strictly meet the requirements from either project, but it might fulfill some deeper desire.

So the idea is to extrapolate a new project that satisfies some core aspects of multiple projects you dont have time for.

[surprisetalk]

That example was not there when he wrote the comment :) I snuck it in after all the helpful feedback in this comment section haha

[bossyTeacher]

> For example, my overarching project is to develop my own computer system, from the custom CPU, up to the operating system and applications, as completely from scratch as possible. This has led me to learn more about Verilog, electronics, soldering, computer architecture, RISC-V, emulators, you name it.

How long do you estimate is going to take you to complete?

[mrec]

What you're describing reminds me very strongly of Here Dragons Abound's "Forever Project":

https://heredragonsabound.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-forever-p...

[zahlman]

Makes sense. I've been discovering that components of ideas I've had would make neat reusable libraries on their own.