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+--- Thread: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible (/thread-5569.html)
Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - C C - Jun 21, 2018
https://medium.com/@johnlicato/the-philosophers-joy-why-we-should-always-overthink-things-whenever-possible-6a0f7e7d935b
EXCERPT: In a dark basement, illuminated solely by the light of a laptop, sits the overthinker. His goal is malicious; he seeks to ruin your buzz, man, and he is a self-styled “philosopher,” wasting our time with navel-gazing, unanswerable questions like “what is the meaning of life?” He argues semantics on the internet, demanding that undefinable words be defined before actually addressing any arguments. Internet debate is a game of throwing poorly-thought-out opinions at each other, and he cowardly refuses to commit to a side. The overthinker thinks deeply, but not clearly. The solution: he should stay away from harmful thinking, especially if it produces no immediate, concrete benefits to our personal lives, and fight our natural programming to think too much.
That’s the motivation behind a recent piece by Zat Rana, entitled “The Philosopher’s Problem: When and Why Thinking Can Be Harmful”. Unfortunately, Rana’s piece is written in a way that can be interpreted as crossing the line into anti-intellectualism. I’m going to argue that broadly urging people to think less, especially when that urging is done incautiously, is enormously harmful. If YouTube and Facebook comments on political articles are any indication, two things are obvious: (1) generally speaking, most people are not “programmed to think deeply”, and (2) our society is desperately in need of people to think more, and encouragement to do so, even when it leads to thinking that some might consider unproductive....
MORE: https://medium.com/@johnlicato/the-philosophers-joy-why-we-should-always-overthink-things-whenever-possible-6a0f7e7d935b
RE: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - Syne - Jun 21, 2018
"Think less" sounds like the current rallying cry of leftists.
RE: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - Secular Sanity - Jun 21, 2018
I think it’s an affliction that affects men more than women. I can solve the mystery for you, though, Syne. It's lint. Well, there you have it. Now, you can stop trying to figure it out and go about your day.
RE: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - Syne - Jun 22, 2018
Oh, so you don't recognize any middle ground between navel-gazing and anti-intellectualism, huh?
Or is it just that you're predisposed to the obsessive, emotional over-thinking that afflicts women?
Care to guess which one has produced more benefits for society, including the device and network you're using to post?
RE: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - Magical Realist - Jun 22, 2018
(Jun 21, 2018 09:58 PM)Syne Wrote: "Think less" sounds like the current rallying cry of leftists.
Partisan blame game again. It never ends.
RE: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - Syne - Jun 22, 2018
Observation, not blame. Learn the difference.
RE: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - Secular Sanity - Jun 22, 2018
(Jun 22, 2018 01:49 AM)Syne Wrote: Care to guess which one has produced more benefits for society, including the device and network you're using to post?
Care to guess which one has produced society?
RE: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - Syne - Jun 22, 2018
(Jun 22, 2018 04:29 AM)Secular Sanity Wrote:(Jun 22, 2018 01:49 AM)Syne Wrote: Care to guess which one has produced more benefits for society, including the device and network you're using to post?
Care to guess which one has produced society?
While higher risk of obsessive thought in women is a side effect of evolutionary psychology, that's very far from asserting it has an appreciable survival/social benefit, as it's largely just a fear response to resource/survival uncertainty. A fear, mind you, that only exists because women cannot produce society themselves.
If obsessive-compulsive phenomena relate to risk scenarios to self and close kin, it should be possible to predict an increase in the frequency and intensity of risk scenarios and harm avoidance rituals at biologically critical times, e.g. following childbirth or around puberty . Current evidence supports the claim that pregnancy and childbirth are associated with significantly increased risk of OCD for women (Buttolph, Peets & Holland, 1998).
- http://cogprints.org/1147/1/ocd-final.htm
Women are far more anxious than men – here’s the science
So women tend to be preoccupied with fear, while men are with potentially more productive things.
RE: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - Magical Realist - Jun 22, 2018
Who let the pathetic woman hater with mommy issues into the room?
RE: Why We Should Always Overthink Things Whenever Possible - Syne - Jun 22, 2018
Ah, more projection about your own relationship with your mother.
SS tried to be misandrist without any factual support, and I simply offered facts.
But we all know how much facts trigger you. Was it the lack of breastfeeding that made you so oversensitive?