An exploration of over-thinking

"Thinking too much can get us into serious cognitive trouble. Attempting to think systematically and rationally about important matters is important; such high-effort activities do often yield better decisions or judgments than shoot-from-the-hip modes of thought. But careful thought, like anything else, can be overdone; and when it is, the result may be increased confusion and frustration rather than better and more accurate conclusions."

Why did I have to learn this the hard way? If only I had known this earlier. It appears to be pretty commonsensical that over-thinking is demeritorious. Yet, in order to come to that conclusion, I'd have to think, and thinking whether over-thinking is beneficial or not surely counts as over-thinking. But if I could come to a beneficial conclusion (i.e. that over-thinking is bad) through over-thinking, over-thinking can't be that bad after all. In this instance, I am clearly over-thinking.

This is why reading widely is beneficial. You can learn how to live life more effectively without having to live through too many trials and tribulations.

"People suffering from depression are more likely to engage in effortful social thought than persons not depressed, mainly because they hope to restore their diminished feelings of personal control through greater understanding of what is happening around them. To the extent they carry these efforts too far, they may run the risk of adding to their personal problems by experiencing the harmful effects of thinking too much."

- Social Psychology, Baron & Byrne, 8th Edition

Let's assume that I am one who engages in effortful social thought more than the average person. Let's also not discount the fact that I could be suffering from depression. Is the reason why I tend to engage in effortful social thought due to a desire to restore diminished feelings of personal control? I highly doubt it. In fact, thinking too much tends to make me feel like I'm losing control. Perhaps it's a bell curve.

I think that not thinking at all still entails of feelings of empowerment, hence the curve doesn't starts at the origin. However, I also think that the "amount of thinking" axis is an asymptote; meaning to say that one can never completely feel out of control even if one over-thinks, because if one is over-thinking enough, one can surely determine that he is over-thinking, and the determination of that fact would give one a certain measure of control, no matter how small.

This entire thought process of mine is characteristic of my thought processes: I think about thinking. (And even the previous sentence was a thought about thinking about thoughts.) (And so on and so forth.)