Overthinking Everything

Overthinking Everything is a Substack focusing on personal development, productivity, and philosophical reflections. It explores themes like the importance of pursuing personal interests, facing fears, understanding procrastination, and the value of reading philosophy. The newsletter delves into practical and conceptual approaches to life's challenges and evolution, aiming to offer insights on living a fulfilled and thoughtful life.

Personal Development Productivity Philosophy Psychology Procrastination Work Types Evolutionary Theory Decision Making

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Why to explain things you already know

279 implied HN points • 26 Sep 23
📖 Philosophy Understanding Knowledge Teaching Engagement
  1. Sometimes explaining something you already know can help you understand it better.
  2. Vertical explanations build on existing knowledge, while lateral explanations connect different parts of your knowledge.
  3. Lateral explanations can create a more solid foundation for understanding, making it easier to build vertical explanations on top.

Reading philosophy for the examples

419 implied HN points • 27 Feb 23
📖 Philosophy Ethics Examples Analogies Human experience
  1. Reading philosophy books can offer stellar examples that stand out and make you think beyond the theories presented.
  2. The examples in philosophy books can be more memorable and impactful than conceptual tools, helping to anchor thoughts and ideas in a relatable context.
  3. Stories in philosophy books, rich with human experiences, can provide valuable insights and prompts for reflection on ethical dilemmas and thought processes.

How things come to be as they are

349 implied HN points • 19 Feb 23
🔬 Science Evolution Biology Technology Memes Patterns
  1. The theory of evolution explains the existence, creation, and extinction of things based on modifications and combinations of existing entities.
  2. Evolutionary processes are not confined to biological organisms but also apply to technologies, ideas (memes), and even inanimate objects like rocks.
  3. Understanding evolutionary theory can help in generating plausible explanations for how things came to be and in devising actions to shape the desired outcomes.

Two types of work

3 HN points • 17 Aug 23
📖 Philosophy
  1. There are two types of work: crunchy and squishy.
  2. Crunchy work is hard due to facing reality, while squishy work is hard due to navigating people's complexities.
  3. Both crunchy and squishy work are essential in most important projects.

Cohering and decohering

1 HN point • 05 Feb 23
  1. Cohering is when all parts of you are pulling in a single direction, like being fully focused on a task.
  2. Decohering is when you're not forming a unified whole, like when your mind is wandering or you're multitasking without focus.
  3. Difficulty in cohering can stem from health issues, trying to focus on the wrong thing, or needing to learn how to cohere properly.