Stop overanalyzing and become the best version of yourself | Hacker News Reader

Stop overanalyzing and become the best version of yourself

blog.higg.so

35 pointssignaler30 comments

How do you stop overanalysing things if this problem itself requires analyzing which things you're overanalysing and which ones really benefit from overthiking? It's an honest question. I know I'm doing it right now and I can't help it.

Perhaps generalizations aren't true.

Overanalyzing happens when there seem to be a right answer between several competing answers. But this is the point where you need to stop thinking and start feeling.

Your intuition is as important an analytical tool and the best executioners have a natural balance between analyzing and intuition.

So if you know you are overanalyzing stop thinking and start feeling.

A "right answer between competing answers" just sounds like a high-entropy belief state over the correct action to take. This doesn't mean you're overanalyzing, it means you don't have enough information to be sure of your decision. If that's the case, you won't get anywhere by analyzing more (although more research may help); "feeling" will just let you be overconfident in whatever you come up with, because you won't understand or question how you came up with it.

It doesn't mean you are but you most probably are.

Furthermore I would claim that very rarely is it the case that you just don't have enough information if you have analyzing something. So in theory you are right but in reality it's never really the case.

And it will be easier to deal with failure because you did what believed in. Less regrets.

Very helpful answer, thanks!

How would one 'start feeling', exactly? I often get the impression that my feelings lag behind my rational thought, and I'm not sure how to go about changing that.

Meditation is a way, it needs a bit of training but with some sound guidance and regular practice you can get some good results in a few weeks or so and they're really worth it. Apart from that: Do something else. Have a walk. Eat some kale ice cream. And maybe you'll find Burroughs' word to be true: "Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer."

Thanks! I've started with meditation and it does seem to help. Or at least it doesn't hurt and forces my mind to relax, even if just for ten minutes. Changing up my behavioral patterns is also something I'm working on.

you don't need to know a man's exact weight to know he is fat

it's about thresholds. the assumption is that ever-finer measurements (analysis) won't suddenly blowup into huge changes in weight (outcome)

As long as the time spent thinking about something is small compared to the time spent doing it, you're fine.

Since you will probably spend on the order of tens of thousands of hours analysing things in your life, spending about twenty minutes analysing your thinking process is no big deal (referring to "I know I'm doing it right now")

Now sometimes you want to spend even more time analysing then the above rule suggests. When to do that is harder and requires a good intuition of the potential gains you could get by thinking a little bit more.

For purely rational analysis of something like say the prisoners dilemma, you only need to use overanalysis or metaanalysis or super rationality where normal analysis fails, which is typically when the problem created a paradox or an inconsistency.

But for stuff like life choices or muddier problems, feeling is often the best option because all types of analysis will fail with insufficient data.

This article identifies a possible truism but offers no advice or even contemplates what to do about it.

Thanks but obviously I already know all these things because I've spent hours thinking about it:) The question remains how do I stop?

If you want to learn about quieting the part of the mind that won't turn off, read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

If you want to learn about overcoming "resistance," read Steven Pressfield, e.g. The War of Art .

The OP touches on both ideas but I don't see how it connects them. It also contains some all-too-commonly unexamined subtext. Is Richard Branson really the "best version" of all of us? Is an appetite for risk the only thing necessary to start and operate many large businesses, or don't you also need to cultivate an interest and aptitude for business, management, and people over the course of your life?

Don't be too self-concious. Don't worry about what other people will think about you. Think about what YOU WANT and the rest will follow.

>I always had a very analytical mind

Really? As opposed to what?

Dreamy non-analytical mind?

holistic?

Some people don't give a shit, and are perfectly happy to go through life this way.

Case in point, my boss at the moment does something I've noticed quite often in stupid people. As soon as the train of thought requires more than about 10 or 15 seconds of quiet thinking and analysis, he immediately changes the subject. He either changes the subject to something that (to my mind) is completely unrelated, or he makes some vague self-affirming statement.

On the one hand, this is annoying as fuck. On the other hand, if I look at it objectively, his brain is just wired that way. He doesn't have the capacity to break down an argument or situation to its atomic level, so his brain compensates by changing the subject and continuing the analysis, albeit on another topic.

It's really just another manifestation of the idea that our brains are constantly analysing things, but it just so happens that this manifestation is incredibly frustrating to anybody who enjoys getting to the bottom of and solving problems.

An analytical mind is not what makes people millionaires, its not what makes the musician great at playing, the artist great at painting or the programmer great at programming, its not even what makes the investor great at investing.

An analytical mind is itself a hinder for making decisions so you need to strike a balance.

I disagree with every word you wrote here. A great programmer must first analyze the problem he has intends to solve or he will likely produce a solution that does not appropriately solve the problem. Great musicians practice for thousands of hours, analyzing their performance and making necessary adjustments. Same for painters. An analytical mind does not necessarily make decision-making more difficult. Often even a cursory analysis can make a decision much easier. Overanalysis is an issue related to anxiety. If the amount of time you spend analyzing a problem effectively negates any value you might gain from making the most beneficial decision, then you have overanalyzed. A great example is selecting products in the grocery store. If you spend 20 minutes comparing the prices of various jars of peanut butter to ultimately save $.50, then you have probably overanalyzed the problem. But analysis itself is an unavoidable, and often beneficial, aspect of being alive.

We are talking about overanalyzing not just analyzing. So I think you are reacting to something I didn't really write. The context is overanalyzing.

And ex. a musician practice for thousands of hours (done that myself) they don't analyze. They can but thats not what makes you a good musicians.

I have noticed this exact same behavior in one of my friends. It is indeed annoying as fuck. It's impossible to have any kind of intellectual conversation with him. When he claims to know why something is the way it is, and then I question him about it, and he just changes the subject, or uses some kind of blanket statement and walks away.

Curious mind sceptic mind positive mind etc.

Isn't mind analytical by definition. Can we still call a mind, mind if its not analytical.

Mind is a lot of things analytical isn't what it is, it's what it can be used for.

Usually analytical minds are opposed to synthetic minds (i.e. good ability synthesize/abstract).

Of course most people can do both, but often people are better at one or the other.

(Although usually, only people with analytical minds waste their time thinking about it.:)

Can't tell if serious or sarcastic. Tone says sarcastic, but I'll assume that your question was genuine in order to answer in the same tone.

Have you ever noticed differences in the level of awareness different people display? (And, indeed, the same person from day-to-day.)

Some people call it mindfulness, awareness, self-awareness, introspection, analytical, etc.

People vary greatly in their conscious awareness of the world around and inside themselves. When OP states "very analytical", they are saying they feel like they're more aware than they perceive other people to be.*

* This has its own considerations.

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