On Overthinking
A random message from an unknown person on a WhatsApp group triggered this post.
How does one avoid overthinking? Though I am not a gyan-peddler, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the process of thinking and overthinking.
The whole wannabe-intellectual tribe thrives on René Descartes's motto “Cogito, ergo sum” or, in short, “I think therefore I am”. The origin of this statement lies in Descarte’s lack of trust in his senses.
He even imagined demons controlling his thoughts and dreams. Despite major trust issues, he believed that his thoughts were the best evidence of him being a creature that “exists” in the first place.
Even before you wonder whether you are an over-thinker, be glad that you are at least a living being! You are not a figment of anyone’s imagination.
It’s not unnatural for a well-read person to overthink something. The quality of decisions deteriorates when you think too less or too much. There is a sweet spot somewhere in between.
Of course, there is a distinction between doers and mere thinkers. But there’s also a question of the environment and quality of thoughts/actions involved in the process.
While you can praise a gangster for doing everything he wants with absolute conviction, you can claim that he causes more harm than a poet who does nothing (apart from inspiring fans remotely).
This reminds me of a quote from Herman Hesse’s novel “Steppenwolf”.
“Most men will not swim before they are able to.” Is not that witty? Naturally they won’t swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water.
And naturally, they won’t think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what’s more, he who makes thought his business, may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown.
I am absolutely in love with this quote. A few years back, I preferred to be a novelist or a poet if money was not a matter of concern. Or rather, I wanted to be a distinguished commentator even at the cost of poverty. But it didn’t pan out as I had predicted when I stepped out of my house to live the dream.
In my current job, I need to ensure that the “doing” goes on even as I indulge in “thinking”. Hence, I cannot afford to overthink in the first place. I’ve applied the same approach in my personal life as well.
My motto is to “move fast and break things” (a philosophy that led to the meteoric growth of Facebook) everywhere. This is much better than the “going with the flow” approach because the latter makes you feel like a dead leaf in a stream. I believe in this so much that I hate indecisive people.
But sometimes, things can break so hard that it takes months to fix. Is that pain harsher than time lost due to inaction?
There is some opportunity cost involved. I am not sure (but I will not overthink this one). I would love to believe that this algorithm has a self-correcting mechanism.