Meta Skills to Build Skills that Build Skills
As you may or may not know my background is in computer science. I have an undergrad degree in the subject and a master’s degree in software engineering. As a result, everything I do in my coaching practice is based on me developing my problem solving skills with this technical foundation.
With that said, in the tech world there is a concept we call metadata. Metadata is data about data and it’s a critically important concept. So, when you use the term meta in front of another word you are basically redefining that word to describe a self-referential subset of the word. Therefore, when I say meta skills I am describing the skills that one needs to build a skill.
For example, if you want to be a self-published author there are several meta skills you may need to develop before you can get to the point where you can actually “successfully” self-publish a book.
- Writing
- Maintaining a website and blog to market your book
- Understanding brand positioning for your book
- Building demand for your book
- Hiring contractors to outsource website hosting, website build, book editing, book formatting, cover design, selling with ecommerce etc.
This list could get longer or shorter depending on how much you outsource. Another example for meta skills is the process for learning how to do a handstand pushup. The meta skills for this skill may include:
- A normal push-up
- A pike-pushup
- Pike-pushup with feet on a box
- An isometric handstand
- A wall supported handstand pushup
In this example, each meta skill is a progression. This means you must be able to do the first meta skill before you can do the second meta skill, and so on and so forth.
Simply stated, when you want to learn how to do any new skill, identifying the meta skills are the best way to get started. No need to try to go from 1 to 100. Roll over, crawl, walk, then run. You can never go wrong when using meta skills to build a skill.