Overthinking vs. Thinking Well: Is Thinking a Lot Really a Bad Thing?
- Willow Williams
- Jun 27, 2024
- 4 min read
Have you ever thought to yourself, "Damn, I am WAY overthinking this."
Chances are, you have, I guarantee it. I know I have. Here's an example of something I have "overthunk" recently.
OK. So. My hair is dumb. It doesn't wave. Doesn't curl. It's thinning. Stringy. Looks dumb long. And short too. I look like I don't know what I'm doing. Like a freak. Like a hobo strung out on meth. I hate that I can't pull it back in a ponytail. And that it does that little flip thing at the ends. But only in the front! Why does it do that flip thing in the front?! No one will want to talk to me because I have no hair. I have a comb-over essentially. I am not pretty. In fact, I am less than pretty because I can't make my hair look like so-and-so's. I should just shave my head. Should give up on trying to look pretty. I am not pretty. Just look at my hair!
Fill in the blank with your own overthunk: __________________________________________!!!
Sounds familiar, I bet. Every person on the planet has done this. Guaranteed. Except for maybe a certain ex-president, but let's not get political here.
Overthinking has been promoted as a bad thing. But is it really? Yes, obsessively thinking about a subject like I did about my hair is an issue. That run-on thought bubble about my hair is a function of my anxiety and the social pressures to conform to certain beauty standards. But is thinking a lot really a bad thing? I would argue that it is not.
I have been trying to think of overthinking like "thinking over". That's what it originally meant. In his 1477 translation of the Hisory of Jason, William Caxton writes,
"whan I haue wel ouerthought these saide thinges I answere yow at this tyme for al… (1)
Thank you for indulging my middle English quote, but to paraphrase what he said, "I've thought it over, and here's my answer." He thought before he spoke. What a novel concept! If more people thought before they spoke, oh what a world that would be!
So I think the word "overthink" needs rebranding. Aye, replaced with a more applicable word like "obsessivethink" or "racingthunk" or "preoccuthink" or "distractathunk" or "immerseathink", so that overthink can come back to itself and mean to think critically over something again.
(Yes, we've talked about my obsession with making up new words for the English language. Get over it and get ustait.)
So yes, that kind of racing thought thinking is no bueno, but thinking, in general, is not. Thinking well especially is not. Thinking well is very, very, very important indeed!
I recently happened upon a philosophy YouTube channel about this very subject, hence my meanderings here about it. In Professor Tom's Philosophy in Ten, Professor Tom offers:
The shift in the term's [overthinking] meaning has apparently occurred only in the last 25 years or so, and maps quite nicely on to increasingly anti-intellectual attitudes in western culture. It’s part and parcel of an attack on intellectual culture. It sends the wrong message, to students especially, since it essentially says that persistent, dogged inquiry into difficult questions and topics is somehow bad, and to be avoided. (2)
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO………………
Thinking well, thinking critically, about the world and ourselves and how society functions and how science works and why the price of gas is so high and why does my neighbor seem to hate my guts and how come those damn Marvel superhero movies got so popular and why did my first date with that cute girl crash and burn are so necessary! When we stop thinking, we stop being human. Thinking is what sets us apart. We can't give that up. Not in a million billion years, but we can and need to give up the preoccuthink (I think that's my favorite) and start thinking well more often.
Here's an example.
If you are an avid reader of my blog posts, and if you're not, you should be!, you'll know that I've had a ROUGH time of things recently. When my situationship first went south, I was a raca-thinka-junkie-crack-head-whore. I could not get my mind to stop spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning. I was so fucking dizzy I am surprised I could walk. In fact, many days I couldn't, and I just stayed in bed and cried.
Cue Friend D. (Go back and check out my previous post about my CTJM here https://www.beautifuldisasterlit.com/post/i-was-ctjmed-thankful-for-good-friends-with-hard-messages.) I needed her slap upside the head to stop spinning and start thinking. Why did I act that way? What from my past haven't I dealt with? What are my emotions about the situation telling me about myself? What could I have done differently? How should I make amends? What do I really value in a partner and need from my relationships, both romantic and platonic? How do I move forward from this? THOSE are the questions that I should be trying to answer. That's the critical think to move forward I needed to do, not the obsessivethink that was crippling me and making my life hell on wheels.
So when you're spinning, and it's hard to stop the spinning I know!, try to stop and ask yourself why. Think about the situation like you were talking to a friend. What would a friend say about my hair? That my bob is cute and makes me look feisty, that my hair is not who I am inside and that who I am inside is fucking GORGEOUS. Easier said than done, I know. If you need help, reach out to someone. If you can't find anyone, DM me and we'll talk.
And if you're so inclined, hit up the Oxford English Dictionary to add the word distractathunk to its next edition. It's every writer's dream to be mentioned in the OED! Word nerds for life!
Beautifully said! We shouldn't overthink about the little stuff, like our hair, but still make sure we are thinking, especially about the important things. Another phenomenal article, as always.