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Overthinking

kerkour.com

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Re: Overthinking

#41

Post by coding123 »

Ugh, this is a very complicated struggle for me, personally. However I have been in the Health sector for the past 15 years. I had a short stint at a retailer.

I think Finance, Health and Social Media we can't really "under"think too much because at a certain point you have potential death in the health sector for making a mistake. You have the potential for a billion dollar lawsuit in the financial sector, and a major class action privacy lawsuit in the social media sector...

So while I tend to think, yeah this sounds great, at the same time we have to be very careful about what Jr level person that wants to start underthinking about stuff...

I think a good balance is to have old geezers overthink and young ones underthink and come to some middle.

Re: Overthinking

#42

Post by 908B64B197 »

Yoric wrote: post #14
gnulinux wrote: post #6

I'm so astonished that we are so careful not to overthink, to the point we accept "you're overthinking it" as a valid excuse to disregard rare risks. But we don't have the same cultural concern against underthinking. I have never heard someone telling their employee or friend "you're underthinking this". Surely overthinking is bad, but when underthinking can be severely dangerous, it's easy to see why some people ove…

> I'm so astonished that we are so careful not to overthink, to the point we accept "you're overthinking it" as a valid excuse to disregard rare risks. Very good point. > But we don't have the same cultural concern against underthinking. I have never heard someone telling their employee or friend "you're underthinking this". Surely overthinking is bad, but when underthinking can be severely dangerous, it's easy to se…

In America, if there's no law against it you can do it.

In France, if there's no law allowing it, you can't do it.

Re: Overthinking

#43

Post by AlbertCory »

This is a rational analysis of a non-rational problem.

"Risk aversion" is the closest term I can find in common use. "Oh, this might be wrong!" or "Oh, someone might criticize me!" become risks you're unwilling to run. "If I give a talk about my idea, people might make fun of it!"

Everyone goes through this. Instead of thinking about it even more, Kerkour needs to work on his emotions. There's no shame in it. We're all afraid.

Re: Overthinking

#44

Post by ksec »

gnulinux wrote: post #6

I'm so astonished that we are so careful not to overthink, to the point we accept "you're overthinking it" as a valid excuse to disregard rare risks. But we don't have the same cultural concern against underthinking. I have never heard someone telling their employee or friend "you're underthinking this". Surely overthinking is bad, but when underthinking can be severely dangerous, it's easy to see why some people ove…

I cant even count how my "overthinking" and analytic conclusion has 90%+ hit rate but all my friends and colleagues told me I am overthinking it.

When 99% of the world are under thinking, not thinking it through or worst and most likely the case, not thinking at all, then of course the 1% are overthinking.

There are downside to overthink on small things, procrastination.

Re: Overthinking

#45

Post by shocks »

CountDrewku wrote: post #30

There comes a point where you're only thinking and not doing. If your thinking is paralyzing you into taking no action that's "overthinking". Just do something even if it's wrong sometimes.

I think many of the commenters here are confusing overthinking projects (what the article is about[1]) and risks (not what the article is about).

Is it sensible to think long and hard about the behaviour of a strategy which trades real money in real markets? Yes.

Is it sensible to spend a week (or any time at all really) deciding if you should use an alpine base image in your docker container or something else? No.

1: "The result? Projects never materialize or are months behind schedule, and everybody is frustrated."

Re: Overthinking

#46

Post by d3nj4l »

roland35 wrote: post #21

When I feel myself approaching overthinking, one strategy I try is to identify if there are different requirements or criteria I may have missed and write them down. A lot of decisions involve complicated trade-offs, and it is often too easy to punch holes in ideas, move on to the next idea, punch holes in that one, and end up back where you started! By ranking the relative importance of requirements you can at least…

I may be misunderstanding you, but what you’re describing sounds like the classic idea of decision matrices.

Re: Overthinking

#47

Post by TapWaterBandit »

cuddlybacon wrote: post #28
gnulinux wrote: post #6

I'm so astonished that we are so careful not to overthink, to the point we accept "you're overthinking it" as a valid excuse to disregard rare risks. But we don't have the same cultural concern against underthinking. I have never heard someone telling their employee or friend "you're underthinking this". Surely overthinking is bad, but when underthinking can be severely dangerous, it's easy to see why some people ove…

> But we don't have the same cultural concern against underthinking. I have never heard someone telling their employee or friend "you're underthinking this". Surely overthinking is bad, but when underthinking can be severely dangerous, it's easy to see why some people overthink. We do this all the time. We just don't use the word "underthink". "You didn't think this through." "It sounds like you haven't gotten to the…

To add to this:

- Look before you leap. - Measure twice, cut once. - Stay silent and have people think you're a fool, open your mouth and confirm it.

I'm sure there are many more common idioms pointing towards the idea of "think before you act".

Re: Overthinking

#48

Post by sonigogo »

I often wonder where I would be in life now if I hadn't "overthought" so many decisions in my 42 years of life. I feel like I often got stuck at different points, and am even feeling that way now, because of "overthinking." That being said, I have a lot to be grateful for and have been able to "summit so many mountains" that were unattainable by my immigrant (and sacrificial) parents and their families. Perhaps I often get "paralysis by analysis" because as pointed out in the post, I tend to overanalyze each potential outcome of a business idea instead of just testing things out and moving forward. Thankfully, I did take some steps to co-found two previous companies, one of which got off the ground so I don't always stay "stuck." Currently, I'm thinking about how to channel society's consumption habits for good.

Re: Overthinking

#49

Post by phnofive »

123pie123 wrote: post #25

I get called out by others for overthinking - until the risks I've pointed out become reality It's all relative - one person can be thought of overthinking and the other person can be thought of as a 'cowboy' and just winging it

I am an overthinker, and I know that ideas are cheap; they're driven as much by emotion as thought, and if my observations are not received in the intended spirit, it's not necessarily worth it to keep pushing.

What has consistently helped in winning trust when providing feedback is pairing any concern with either a qualification (blocker/aesthetic/security), a solution, or both. Then, you not only expose the thought process behind your perspective that they've missed something - with which your audience may not agree, but can judge in earnestness - but also your intention to help and support their vision.

Re: Overthinking

#50

Post by niyaven »

908B64B197 wrote: post #42
Yoric wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm so astonished that we are so careful not to overthink, to the point we accept "you're overthinking it" as a valid excuse to disregard rare risks. Very good point. > But we don't have the same cultural concern against underthinking. I have never heard someone telling their employee or friend "you're underthinking this". Surely overthinking is bad, but when underthinking can be severely dangerous, it's easy to se…

In America, if there's no law against it you can do it. In France, if there's no law allowing it, you can't do it.

Would you care to give a few examples? Where something was forbidden _without any law_ and then later allowed _with a law_?
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