Following up on yesterday’s post, there becomes a point where overthinking can become a problem. It’s a fine line.
When it comes to big problems, some deep thought can be a great thing. For other areas of life, being able to react quickly has huge advantages.
This article from The Economist gets into some great examples of this “unthinking” with Roger Federer and Bob Dylan, but is quick to point out that unthinking is not about being uninformed — it’s about being very prepared. From the article:
Unthinking is not the same as ignorance; you can’t unthink if you haven’t already thought.
This again goes back to why I write this blog — so when the time comes and I’m unpacking a question that someone asks, I’ll hopefully have already thought through it on these pages. I discussed that more in this post, but this is the reason why I respect people like Seth Godin so much. He’s taken the time to really dig into ideas, so when they come up in an interview he can “unthink” and just give the answer, because he’s previously thought through it.
