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Thinking too much can be bad for you (2012)

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Re: Thinking too much can be bad for you (2012)

#162
post #144
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm exactly the same, only I've done it ever since I was very little and it simply never went away (I'm in my early 20s now). Usually I'm awake in my bed for at least an hour. Sometimes two. I just really can't stop thinking. It's not anxiety in my case. Any people here who were in a similar situation and were able to get rid of it, or make significant improvement?

Usually I'm awake in my bed for at least an hour. Sometimes two Huh, lucky one. Some stay awake until morning. I know that some people find it strange or even perverted, but try listening to ASMR. First find an artist and a specific 1-2h long video that calms your mind at day while you work or read, and then use it for going to sleep (use comfortable earbuds). They have special videos for sleep, but you may use any o…

You can also use ASMR podcasts, many of which are ad-free (though ask for donations) and are easier to quietly loop through the night for as long as you need. I found a few that actually read bedtime stories.

Re: Thinking too much can be bad for you (2012)

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The samurai died out though, where as Japan’s unchanging ancient businesses managed to remain. I wonder if quick thinking isn’t just what leads one to an early end, business, life, or otherwise. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25281164

Yet here we are, idolizing them centuries later, while an old shop is a curiosity at best. Living long != living well.

Idolization is rooted in ignorance.

Re: Thinking too much can be bad for you (2012)

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ubuntu the operating system takes its name from the concept that you talk about here. That is also why the logo of Ubuntu the operating system is three people holding hands, which kind of blew my mind when I first heard about it. Prior to that I thought the logo was just some lines and circles in a pretty pattern with no specific meaning.

Ubuntu is the distribution. GNU is the operating system. Linux is the kernel.

A GNU/Linux distro can be referred to as an operating system. Not sure if you are memeing or not, but in conversation going into specifics about the GNU/Linux, or GNU plus Linux as you might like to call it, distinction, is not relevant here.

And in fact, I would say that saying that “GNU is the operating system” is even incorrect. GNU plus Linux is the operating system. Neither part by itself is a complete operating system.

So, the distro is the operating system.

Ubuntu is the operating system.

Re: Thinking too much can be bad for you (2012)

#166
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet here we are, idolizing them centuries later, while an old shop is a curiosity at best. Living long != living well.

Modern fascination with samurai is less idolizing and more fetishizing. Plenty of people telling stories. Not a lot practicing the art. And those that do are (rightfully) snickered at for taking seriously something that is supposed to be mere quaint fascination.

We don't have life all figured out in modern society either. Especially when it comes to dying (without it just being the end of a period of despair and depression), but also I'd say dealing with risk and difficulty generally.

Eastern cultures didn't really have religions universally promising to provide all the answers/solutions like western culture had, so they developed very interesting alternative ways of addressing these struggles in life.

Re: Thinking too much can be bad for you (2012)

#167

In chess there's an idiom for this. "Long think, wrong think" because it's a quite common phenomenon that very good players will ruin positions by rather than playing with their good instinct, over-analyzing a position, there's a related situation of the hardest games to win being already won positions because there's so many ways to win that people will on occasion start doing something really stupid akin to the exa…

Keep in mind the expertise required to build that intuition, though. The average person who merely knows how to play Chess should probably think before they move, or else blunder away the whole game by putting their queen on a square threatened by a knight they didn't look at. That said, most people are probably "experts"--in the sense that their intuitions can often outdo their conscious trains of thought--in more t…

True, with enough experience you know when to move fast and when to dither, a kinda game sense.

Re: Thinking too much can be bad for you (2012)

#168
It depends on the subject of 'overthinking': not all subjects are compatible with subconscious/instinctual approach, creative/physical effort dominates only with simple rules and restricted systems - once your field is complex enough overthinking is more potent at uncovering flaws/loopholes/creative insights.

Re: Thinking too much can be bad for you (2012)

#170
post #123
post #118

It reminds me of a graduate quantum class I had. The professor gave what he called "infinite time length exams". We would come in during the afternoon and we could stay as long as we wanted to work on the exam--though we had to slip it under his door by say 9:00am. You could bring as many books as you wanted (apparently at one point you could bring "anything" and someone brought a professor--but that could just be a…

i really like this sort of exams, where some artificial condition isn't imposed on the examinees for ranking purposes. I had a computer science exam where you are allowed to bring any text book/reference book you wish, and any notes you've written yourself. The exam was long and hard yes, but it was also thorough. One of the more enjoyable exams i recall taking - vs all of the other types.

With online learning, basically all of my exams are like this. I’ve heard of some people having proctored online exams, but luckily my school’s Math and CS departments seem to have opted to just make the questions harder/unable to be looked up, and gave up on restricting us from using notes or the internet. It’s actually surprising how well it works, if the professor can design the exam cleverly enough. Really the only way you can cheat is by colluding with other students (which admittedly is a fairly big issue) or, for some types of programming questions, by just running the code on your own machine (which again can be avoided by clever test design).
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