If you're not a Python coder, this may help with the title reference.
From The Perks of Being a Wallflower, via a comment by Ben Burns on Tim's blog.
“Do you always think this much, Charlie?”
“Is that bad?”
“Not necessarily. It’s just that sometimes people use thought to not participate in life.”
“Is that bad?”
“Yes.”
I'm procrastinating on things I should be doing because I am afraid of them, and hiding out by being meta. Reflection's good, and when I use it to avoid doing the things I'm reflecting on, I should stop reflecting and go back to doing.
Fortunately, I can set up metacognitive triggers on overmetacognition. (Sometimes they work.) And then, during times like this (for instance, I am currently abusing nested parentheses (see?) and overusing the word "meta," and blogging about how I'm doing these things instead instead of going to bed, instead of going to bed) I can go "Oh, okay. I've just crossed that line. Stop."
Traceback (most recent call last): File "mel.py", line 42, in -brain- TooMuchMetaError: using thought to not participate in life
And swing back towards the other direction.
I'm now tired enough to be unconscious for a few hours. Sleep time.