Overthinking

It is not possible to overthink something. Overthinking is an erroneous concept possibly created by people who in fact do not think enough to realise it is wrong.

What people think “overthinking” is, is when there is a simple concept, such as a choice you have to make, or something you have to learn, and instead of taking it as it is, you think “too much” about it. This lead to overcomplication, which as opposed to overthinking, is a valid concept.

The difference between these two terms is best shown by explaining why overthinking isn’t real. It is impossible to think too much about something. The issue that actually arises is that a person will consider things that most people wouldn’t. When planning a trip they will find a flight, but will not book it because they think that they might be able to find a better deal, and instead spend more time looking for other deals. They might check the company offering the flight to make sure it is not a scam. They might not want to use their credit card because they think it might get stolen. They will repeatedly check to make sure everyone has their passports, and take extra precautions, and worry that they plane might not be safe. The “overthinking” person will worry about prices, safety, and anything else they can think of that might go wrong.

In response, the average person will tell them not to worry, and that they are thinking too much about it. Instead, they might suggest to not ask so many questions, and instead to trust it, or trust their intuitions. They would be wrong.

There are at least two reasons why someone would suggest to think less:

1. They don’t think these precautions are needed, because
   1. The things the person is concerned about will never happen, or
   2. The things the person is concerned about are so unlikely that they are not worth considering
2. They have seen people worry about such things, and see them overwhelmed by doubt and indecision. They think that nothing good comes of thinking.

These are all flawed arguments because:

1. When you don’t think about what problems might happen, you won’t be prepared for them. You cannot expect to avoid or be able to fix a problem if you do not even know it exists. Many problems require planning to deal with properly, and if you do not, you might not be able to solve them at all.
   1. Problems do happen. They’re more likely to happen if you do not avoid them.
   2. If something has a low chance to happen, that does not at all mean that it will not happen. People are surprised when, something that is improbable happens to them, because they do not understand how probability works.
2. Perhaps the most prominent issue people see with thinking is that they think it leads to doubt and indecision, both of which they think are bad things.
   1. Doubt is not a bad thing, it is the fundamental principle behind science. Doubt is what lets engineers figure out how a plane can fail, no matter how improbable, and develop ways to avoid or fix it. That is why planes are so much safer than cars and road traffic. If engineers did not “overthink” aircraft, we would have a lot more aircraft accidents, as happened when air travel was newer and the discipline was not as developed. Confidence (as opposed to doubt) is how you get scammed. It is how a professional looking website will take your credit card information, or make you sign a contract that can create life ruining legal trouble. It is how politicians make you think they’re obviously the best candidate, and then abuse their power to make life better for the elite at the expense of everyone else.
   2. Indecision is the result of thinking “wrong”, not thinking too much.
      1. If you are having trouble making a decision it could be because you don’t have enough information to choose, or it could be because it is too difficult to compare the benefits and drawbacks of the choices. If it is a hard decision, then you need to think more about it until you figure out what choice is correct. Thinking about it less will just mean you’ll be making a choice without sufficient information, which amounts to arbitrarily or randomly deciding. This is leaving it to fate, so if it goes wrong, it will be your own fault for picking randomly.
      2. If you repeatedly worry about the same thing, or worry about things that are easily resolved, then you are not using reason correctly. Whether you have enough information to eliminate a doubt but still are doubtful, or you lack enough information, there is a point in your thinking when you have covered every possibility. Some problems cannot be solved with what you have and it is not feasible to get more. Some problems can only be solved partially. Some plans are not perfect, but there are no improvements that can be feasibly made.

Decisions are best made by getting as much information as you can, verifying it as much as possible, and using reason to determine what choices are available and which is the best. Decisions are made harder by a lack of information, faulty information, errors in reasoning and judgment, and limitations of time. You cannot overthink a problem because there is only so much to think about. Once you have thought about everything, it is not possible to think any more about it reasonably. If you attempt to, you would just be re-thinking things you already solved before. Thinking less about it is easier, but not better. It promotes blind and rash action over caution and reason, and is the cause of many problems that people never realise, because they don’t think.

It is not possible to overthink something. It’s just what people who don’t think see when someone does not rush to judgment.

Discipline and Reason

Discipline is the ability to follow a set of rules without failing. As far as I know, there are two types of discipline. The first is external discipline, which is when you follow what another person says without question. This type of discipline is useless and immoral, as it denies people their basic freedom of choice, and discourages critical thinking, caution, and reason. The second type of discipline is internal discipline, or self discipline. This is the ability to do what you want to do despite your subconscious or physical barriers not allowing you to do them. Self discipline is extremely useful, and as opposed to external discipline promotes freedom of choice and critical thought.

Self discipline is what is needed to do what you really want to do as opposed to what you think you want to do. Your subconscious will tell you to do things that it is programmed to do such as eating, bodily functions and reproduction. While some of these urges justified to keep you healthy and safe, others such as lust, greed, and laziness are not beneficial and are often contrary to what you actually want to do. This does not necessarily mean that the actions that these impulses want you to do are bad, it simply means that impulsive behavior is not necessarily good. It can be helpful to force someone to do something beneficial, but since these actions are pre-determined and somewhat arbitrary, they do not use reason. To determine which of these actions you should do, they should be analysed to determine if they are reasonable.

Self discipline then allows you to do the things you have determined you want to do, and to resist the urges that you disagree with. This is particularly difficult when impulses make you think you want the action. The easiest way to get someone to do something is to get them to like it. If someone likes something, they are less likely to question if they are being compelled to do it or if they actually want to. The fact remains though that this desire is induced and can be differentiated from naturally formed likes.

This is why the phrase “I want” is simplistic. It does not take into account that there are different types of “wants” and in a way different “I”s. Your subconscious may want to do something and will compel you to do it by making you desire it. That desire is chemically induced, and does not come from the rational part of your brain. In a way it is you who wants it but it is only a part of you. The other part of you, the one that isn’t programmed and can make it’s own decisions, may want something else. Self discipline is the ability for the conscious part of the brain to not be controlled by the unconscious part. The ability to withstand pain, desire, and even physiological constraints allows you to decide whether or not something that had been programmed to help you will actually help you. The brain might shut itself down to protect itself, but this may often lead to harm that you can’t avoid since you are not conscious. The subconscious does not question itself, it does not think ahead, and it does not necessarily know what is best for you. This is why you need to question it and decide for it, otherwise you are essentially letting someone else not only decide what is best for you, but also make you to want to do it.

What is Philosophy?

I’m going to write this more casually than my other essays since it’s an introduction.

Philosophy is not the study of useless things that you will never use in your life. Lots of people think that, but that’s only a small part of what philosophy actually is. Philosophy is the study of why things are. Heres why this is important:

Let’s say you have nothing to do so you decide to eat a cake you have in the kitchen.
I come in and ask you “Why are you eating that cake?”

You say “Lol I don’t know”

Bull$#!%. Most of the time, you know why you do things, maybe subconsciously, but you still know why. Why do you know why? Because your brain generally doesn’t do things without a reason.

So I ask you, “What do you mean you don’t know?”

“No reason I guess. I was bored.”

“But then that’s the reason you’re eating cake: you’re bored.”

“Yeah. lol ;D”

“So if you’re bored, why are you eating cake?”

“Just something to do I gues-”

“NO, WHY IS EATING CAKE THE ACTION YOU CHOSE AS A RESULT OF BEING BORED?”
“I… guess it’s fun? O_O”
“So why are you doing something fun when you’re bored?”
“Because being bored means that you want to do something fun I guess? Ç_Ç”
“So you want to do something fun”
“Yes don’t hurt me plz”
“Ok I guess that explains why you’re eating my cake.”

So you see, you don’t do things for no reason. What the $%&# does that have to do with philosophy?

You see an insect in your kitchen. Most people in the West would step on it. Why? Because insects are dirty and could bring more insects in your house, and that’s unsanitary and would get in your way. Since you don’t want those things, you get rid of the bug.

OK, that makes sense I guess. But you didn’t really think that through.
Let’s say theres a fly that’s annoying you, so you swat it. So you’re telling me that when something mildly annoys you, you kill it? Most people wouldn’t kill a dog or a person that mildly annoys them, so why a fly? Because it’s small? Would you kill small people that annoy you too? Most people wouldn’t because those are still people with feelings and a life and ambitions and they’re intelligent and self aware, they deserve to live. Right? Well if you disagree you’re probaly a little sociopathic but that’s OK don’t hurt me please.

Ok, so what, the fly can’t recognise itself in a mirror so it doesn’t deserve to live?
Really bro?
Really?
It may be a $%&#~€¬ biological progammed machine that does nothing but eat, $#!%, sleep, and reproduce, but it’s still alive. You know how many things are alive? Not that many. Oh what you’re going to tell me that theres trillions if not more of livings things on Earth? YEAH? WELL WHAT ABOUT IN SPACE HUH? ON MARS? I DON’T SEE NO GODDAMN FLIES ON MARS! What about Jupite-NOPE! Ok fine, what about the next solar system ove-NOPE. So of all the known universe, the only places that we know there is life is on this planet. That’s a lot less than 1% of the universe. A lot.

Yeah the fly doesn’t know much and theres a lot more flies. You probably wouldn’t say the same thing about a dog though. Would you kill a dog that annoyed you? Again, sociopathy. But still don’t hurt me.

That’s philosophy.

OK, so you’re telling me to be a hippie. No, just think a little about stuff.
Heres something that might be more applicable to you:

You go to a club on friday night. You drink a lot and dance and have a lot of fun. You get back at 6 AM and see your friends who stayed at home just finished playing a video game. What losers right? Playing a video game on a friday night?

WRONG ANSWER MOTHER “·$%&@. Heres the right answer:
You like going to clubs. Why? Let’s say it’s because you like dancing. Why do you like dancing? I don’t know, it’s just fun. OK, but think a little harder. Why is it fun? What makes it fun? Well, I like moving my body to the rhythm, it makes me feel good. OK, so you’re saying you want to feel good. Yes. Drugs make you feel good too, so you’d do drugs? NO! Why not? You said you want to feel good. Yes but drugs hurt you. OK so you want to feel good, but being healthy is more important than feeling good? Sure. So what about this drug that makes you feel good with no side effects? That doesn’t exist. Yes it does. No, it doesn’t. It’s right here. What the hell is that? It’s a drug that has no side effects. What? No way. Yeah. Try it. No, I’m not trying your random drug. Are you scared? Fine I’ll take the drug. No. What do you mean no? You offered me the drug. It was a test.
CRACK
IS
WHACK
So would you take the drug? Sure I guess. So you’d take drugs because you want to feel good. Yes. So you’re a drug addict. Wha-. This is besides the point I was trying to make. The people playing videogames don’t like dancing, so why do you think they’re pathetic for not going dancing? Well they should like dancing. Why? Because it’s fun like I said. What if they don’t find it fun? How can they not find it fun? I find it fun, so they should too. Really? Yes. OK, so if you find something fun, it’s because that thing is fun for everyone. Yes. OK, so these people find playing videogames fun, therefore you should too. No videogames aren’t fun. Why? Because I played a game on my phone once and it wasn’t fun. OK but you’re a $%&# who doesn’t know about philosophy. What does that have to do wi-

People have different tastes. There is no objective measure that I know of to measure how fun something is. Different people find different things fun. THAT is philosophy. That’s also logic. Sometimes philosophy is logic, sometimes it’s emotional, sometimes it’s history, sometimes it’s science. Philosophy can be applied to anything. What is philosophy? It’s just thinking about why things are. Why should you think about why things are? Because unless you’re perfect, you think you know a lot of stuff that you don’t actually know. You don’t believe me? Then why do so many people disagree on so many things in this world?

Heres something really stupid that a lot of people say:
“It’s better not to think.”
Seriously? Of all the stupid things to say. You thought: Hey, thinking just makes things worse, and makes me stressed or sad. Are you really going to create a thought that tells yourself to stop thinking? If thoughts are so bad, then what about the thought you just had about how thinking is bad? How are you supposed to come up with “thinking is bad”, well, you THINK it. So what happens if you stop thinking. Well, basically you’re stuck with whatever facts and logic you have right now. And I can tell you that what you have probably isn’t all that correct or even good enough.

You think you’re good without thinking? How about I ask you a simple yet not so useful question. What are the only things you know for sure?

Everyone dies.
WRONG. What happens when we figure out a way to make people live forever? You think that won’t happen? What are you, a goddamn biologist? You don’t know that! How do you even know that everyone dies? Sure you might have seen a lot of people die, it might make sense because if not the world would be full of people, but you don’t KNOW that. Someone TOLD you that. How many people have you met? a couple thousand maybe? that’s not even 1% of the world population. For all you know there could be a lot of people who will never die. Maybe they’re just underground. I’m not saying they’re underground, I’m just saying that you don’t know.

OK fine, so I don’t know that for sure. So what?

So you can’t answer the question then. What do you know FOR SURE?
One of the right answers is that you know you exist. No, this isn’t just something trivial. This is why this is an absolutely truth:

Figure out what you know for sure. You know the sky is blue. Is it? Maybe you can’t see colors properly, and you just call it blue but everyone else sees it as green and calls it blue. Unlikely? Not at all. Think about it: how do you define blue? Well you can’t define the color the see, you can define the wavelength of light it is but that doesn’t explain what blue looks like. You see a color in two places, so does someone else, so you can both see the color and both agree that it’s called blue. What are they actually seeing as blue though? It could be what you see as a green. Let’s say you could see through their eyes for a moment. If they see green where you see blue, how could you possible know? You’ve seen it as blue your whole life and called it blue, he’s seen it a green his whole life and called it blue. Theres no way to know what they see unless you can see through their eyes. So the point is, you don’t know if the sky is blue. OK, fine, but it’s a color that I call blue. Is it though? How do you know the sky is there? OK, you get the point right? So let’s skip to the part where I ask you how do you know you’re even seeing it? Maybe you’re asleep. etc. etc. The point is you can’t tell whether or not any of this is real. You could be in the matrix or dreaming and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. So you don’t if anything you see around you is real. So what do you know? Well, I know that I’m asking myself this question. How do you know that? Well because I’m answering it right now.

That is undeniable. I think.
“I think, therefore I am.”
That is philosophy. No really, Descartes said that. He was a philosopher. True story.

So the point is, you don’t know. You want another example?

“All couples fight. Fighting is healthy.” No, not all couples fight and fighting is not neccessarily healthy.
Heres an example of why philosophy is useful. You don’t have to fight. You should however, discuss things. Why do you fight? Because you have a disagreement. You don’t want to wash the dishes but she wants you to. The wrong thing to do is shout and argue. Most people think “argue” means to fight, but it doesn’t. An argument is an attempt to explain and justify something. It doesn’t have to be angry, or loud, or just two people saying what they think and not resolving anything.

What you’re supposed to do is explain why you don’t want to do the dishes. Like I said before, there has to be some reason. Maybe you’re lazy. OK, that makes sense. But the dishes have to be washed to eat on them eventually. Yeah but she can do them. Why her? Well she always does them. So she always should? Well no… So why can’t you do it instead of her? No reason, that’s why. So do your goddamn dishes. You ate my cake.

Communication is vital. That’s philosophy, and that’s also in every dating guide you’ll read in all your stupid girls’ magazines and MSN.com/love. Why? Because it makes sense and because philosophy is everywhere.

Heres some philosophy: Hedonists think that the point of life is to have fun. That’s a legitimate philosophy. I don’t think it’s right, but it’s a legitimate philosophy. Heres what I think: having fun is only worth it if it’s meaningful. The meaning of life has to have meaning. Fun alone doesn’t have meaning. Doing drugs makes you feel good, but that’s all that is, a meaningless feeling. True happiness doesn’t come from alcohol or drugs in your brain causing chemical reactions to make you feel good, it’s when theres a reason to feel good. It’s when you KNOW that you’re happy, not when you’re tryng to convince yourself that you are. True happiness is when you’re enjoying a day with your family because you love them and you’re making them happy because of things that you KNOW you enjoy. It’s something you can tell people about or write in a book. You can write about the feeling a drug gives you, but someone else can’t empathise with that, because all that is is a feeling, not an emotion. No one cares about what you felt with a drug, it’s a personal experience that comes down to just a feeling. Nothing more. It has no meaning. There is deeper meaning in doing things that you love, like playing a strategy computer game that requires skill and timing and reflexes, and coordinating with your friends to achieve an objective, together. Sure it was an imaginary objective, but that doesn’t matter because it’s something you genuinely enjoy doing, like dancing. It doesn’t have to be physical to be real.

Some people avoid thinking because they think it causes them pain. You’re going to feel pain anyway, avoiding it will just make things worse later. People think that avoiding pain is a good idea, until the pain comes back and they can’t avoid it. That philosophy of avoiding doesn’t last very long. Start asking yourself why you’re avoiding pain. Hell, ask yourself why pain hurts or why you care. You might find that pain isn’t all that bad if it’s worth it in the end.

It might hurt at first, and maybe even sometimes later, but it’s definitely much more worth it then just being a biological machine and just following your programming.

If you want to start living life, then start asking “why?”.

Learning, Science, Emotion, Knowledge and Truth

Learning and Truth
-Absolute truth
Truth can only be found in two ways: one is by finding an absolute truth through reasoning and other mental methods, and the other is through your senses. An example of the first is the famous quote from Descartes “I think, therefore I am”. This simply means that the proof for your own existence is the fact that you are asking yourself that very question. The reason that this is an absolute truth is that the question solves itself since in order to ask yourself whether or not you exist, you have to exist in the first place to ask that question. This means that you atleast know for sure that you exist. To disprove this would need a complex counter argument which I cannot think of, other than doubting that you’re asking the question in the first place, but I do not know how you can answer a question when you doubt that you asked it.

-Science
The second kind of truth that you can learn is through acquiring information from your senses. Things that you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell are sent to you through different media, are received by your senses, converted into signals and sent to your brain where they are converted into information for you to process. This is called communication theory, and is important because it shows that errors can occur in several of the stages involved in communication theory. Ultimately, the most important consequence of these errors is determining whether or not what you sense is accurate. The most obvious examples of this are optical and auditory illusions, which are quite common both in nature and from man. There many ways to trick the senses, for example showing someone something completely false and portraying it as reality, or to trick the brain into thinking that it sees something which is not there. There are two examples of the latter, dreams, and the Matrix concept from the Matrix films and other similar stories. In both of these examples it is extremely hard if not impossible to determine if what you are experiencing is reality or not. What all of this suggests that whatever information you perceive from your senses can be flawed, so theres no point in using your senses unless you can determine as accurately as possible whether or not what you are seeing is real or not. If you do not do this, then you could not use your senses and just lie to yourself, since the effect is the same.

This is scientific method. While science tries to detemine the truth through rigourous experiments, it knows that it does not yet have a way to determine whether or not it is absolutely correct. The best science can do is conduct enough trials of an experiment and run the experiment carefully to eliminate as much error as possible. Scientific method is the main way in which physical knowledge is obtained, since all science is is essentially being logical, careful, and not making any assumptions. While science is currently limited, there is no evidence yet that science cannot find all truths. I however believe that certain things, such as free will and love are not deterministic or random, but free, and therefore might not be able to be explained by science.

Absolute and Subjective Truth in Reason and Emotion
Both of these methods, absolute and subjective truth, require that you use several methods to process the information. I consider these two main methods to be needed to use reason and emotion. These are often seen as opposite, but infact are both needed to know the truth. With only logic, one can not be truely happy, and with only emotion, one would make terrible decisions and conclusions since many decisions can not be made without logic. When a conclusion is made without logic it becomes an assumption, lacking evidence or checking and only relying on your instinct and emotions, which are flawed by themselves. The extremes of these two are scientists who have no humanity, and Romantics who are illogical to the point of insanity. These extremes are easy to live with since they require less work and get some things achieved, but this comes at the expense of having to lie to yourself to ignore things that would have otherwise helped you, because if you considered them then your extremist point of view would not work.

Using Both Logic and Emotion, Resulting in Reason
-True Emotions
This means that you need to be logical and know how to distinguish what emotions you are feeling are true. I believe that “true” emotions are ones that are not determined by instinct or only caused by chemicals in your brain. True emotions are ones that are brought about by things that you know to be true, not by chemicals you put into your body or lies that you tell yourself. In order for an emotion to be true, it must originate in the mind, not the brain.

A true emotion, such as true happiness, love, or sadness, is caused because you know certain facts which are by their nature happy, sad, etc. While this can also bec caused by simply injecting chemicals into someone’s brain, this is induced and therefore a false emotion. It is also false because this emotion would not have any rational cause. When someone feels an emotion without a meaningful reason, they can distinguish that they do not know why they are feeling that, which can ultimately be used to eliminate that feeling through reason. This shows the importance of being able to determine which of your emotions are true, and which are simply caused by meaningless chemical reactions.

-Logic
Logic is a field of mathematics, which is universal and thus is related to the first method of learning. THhs means that you can learn about and use logic without having to rely on your senses. Logic is essentially a set of rules so abstract and general that is is universally applied within certain boundaries. Since logic is a set of rules, if someone knows some of them but is either misinformed or does not thnk carefully about the rest, they could easily have an incorrect view of what logic is. Since logic is neccessary for finding the truth, if someone does not use logic then most of their conclusions will be flawed, which will cause them to make further false conclusions based on those false conclusions, and so on. Since logic is objective, people who do not use it enough will make objectively wrong conclusions and will go further from the truth.

-Reason
When someone uses both logic and emotion, I consider them to be reasonable. While this term is ussually associated with logic alone, I think that the root of the word is more important, the fact that both logic and emotion should have a reason for being. This does not imply a physical reason, but instead a philosophical and mental reason that you know to be true through both of these methods. Living like this would mean that true emotions such as love should be considered when thinking logically. For example, while it is difficult to measure emotions, logic can be used to determine which path would lead to the emotion that you have determined to be true. An emotion should not be considered as irrational unless it is a false emotion. In this way, science and humanity are balanced, leading a person to be balanced and able to find truth and therefore true happiness