Everything has a meta

Any gamer knows about the “meta”, supposedly an acronym for “most effective tactics available”, which just means the current best strategy to win the game. In Rocket League, the game I am mostly familiar with, the meta has changed from hitting the backboard, to bumping/demoing the opponent, ballchasing, flip resets etc.

Lately the term has taken a broad approach, referring to other things other than gaming, very similarly to the Brazilian Portuguese word “manha”, meaning ability to perform something, or quirk.

For example, when using someone’s else shower, it’s common to ask “What’s this shower’s manha?”. Sometimes you need to leave it very hot then slowly turning it down, sometimes you need to start cold and increasingly adding cold water etc.

The same applies for vehicles. One time I got my motorcycle stolen, but then the police found it later, most likely because the robbers couldn’t turn it on again. This happened because my motorcycle had a manha, a quirk, or a meta.

Back in Pinheiros, where I lived in Brazil, the meta for a Saturday night was to eat empanadas then drink in a cocktail bar next to it. The reason is that empanadas were relatively cheap, but the beverages weren’t that much.

Here in Portugal, and in Argentina too, the meta for dinner is arriving early, since it gets crowded staring ~9PM, and you won’t get too much attention, or even a table. Specially being an immigrant.

Those things are things that you just learn by experimenting, trying to optimize the outcomes. Knowing which neighborhoods are good, which food is best on which restaurant etc.

One of my dream projects is to just build a universal catalogue of the meta. People would post their own tips there, grouped by category and location, and people would upvote the best ones.

The overall point is that every single are has its own meta. Each home appliance. Each website. Even each person you know. You gotta keep tabs on that, after all, you don’t want to get behind the meta, right?