It’s idiosyncratic and highly variable (across people and across time and topics for a person) just how much thought is valuable compared to action (and compared to “just don’t it”).
I find it very useful to separate “collecting data”, “planning actions”, “predicting future feelings”, in order to notice when I’m doing good decision-making work vs just spinning. And of course, also notice when I’m putting more work into the decision than the differential value of the result will bring.
I hesitate to give blanket advice “don’t think so much”, because I know a number of people who need to hear the opposite advice: “please think for a few minutes before you speak or act”. I do not hesitate to give the advice “a few minutes to determine whether this is a fairly low-impact decision, or one that benefits from further thought.” I’m also a big fan of time-boxing. Spend no more than 5 minutes determining how long you’ll spend considering before committing.
It’s idiosyncratic and highly variable (across people and across time and topics for a person) just how much thought is valuable compared to action (and compared to “just don’t it”).
I find it very useful to separate “collecting data”, “planning actions”, “predicting future feelings”, in order to notice when I’m doing good decision-making work vs just spinning. And of course, also notice when I’m putting more work into the decision than the differential value of the result will bring.
I hesitate to give blanket advice “don’t think so much”, because I know a number of people who need to hear the opposite advice: “please think for a few minutes before you speak or act”. I do not hesitate to give the advice “a few minutes to determine whether this is a fairly low-impact decision, or one that benefits from further thought.” I’m also a big fan of time-boxing. Spend no more than 5 minutes determining how long you’ll spend considering before committing.
Out of curiosity, could you give an example of such a decision where some may benefit from thinking more?
With two caveats that I left as implicit:
thinking that doesn’t equate to willpower (e.g. “If I had thought for 5 seconds I wouldn’t have snorted the coke having already drank 8 beers)
thinking, rather than researching, I agree a lot of decisions could benefit from a lot more research
Just like this classic! https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/03/24/should-you-reverse-any-advice-you-hear/