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Anytime someone says "I think too much" I feel the need to speak up. This mentality is, from my experience, destructive. When I was on a Mormon mission question

Anytime someone says "I think too much" I feel the need to speak up. This mentality is, from my experience, destructive. When I was on a Mormon mission questioning the beliefs and bringing it up to my superiors, that was the response I was given far too often and I've come to resent it. The sentence before says: "I think I know too much" and that bogs down his creativity and energy. I'm calling bullshit. Who knows too much? How can you know too much? Does gaining knowledge really prevent one from being creative or energetic? I think he comes closer to a point when he says: "it’s my attention to that knowledge which is destroying my inspiration." But I think its not the attention to the knowledge that is "destroying" his inspiration, but the way in which he uses that knowledge. Why not give attention to the vast amount of knowledge gained writing web apps since IE4, and then use that knowledge to create novel ideas or better ways of doing things? Why not use the knowledge to create something better than JavaScript instead of complaining about it? I think the point to take from this, at least for me, is to keep an open mind. He sort of said things contrary to that multiple times, but I want to believe thats what he was getting at.

joshmlewis 12y ago
I don't know if this was his original meaning but I know living on the east coast in a town with hardly any tech startup successes, finding experienced people who have had real success to learn from is extremely difficult and leaves me thirsty for knowledge. Thus when I spend time traveling and learning from great people in places like SF and then come back here, I often feel like I "know too much" and need to be challenged because I can't seem to find fault in my own thinking. I'm deathly afraid of falling into the same mindset, whatever that may be, that caused all the startups around me to fail so I have this egotistical attitude at times when I'm not around people who challenge me. I'm learning and trying to grow past that faulty thinking but it is tough. Maybe this is partly what he was alluding to.
robconery 12y ago
OP here... I should say that I wrote this post rather late with a glass of wine in my hand and perhaps didn't use all the exact words to convey my point clearly. But let me address your points. "Thinking too much" seems to have hit a button for you; sorry about that. I do think this is a pretty common thing: The Paradox of Choice. That's sort of what I am feeling as I know quite a few languages and frameworks, and it's difficult for me to stop diddling over "what should I use" and just write it. I've spent my career creating things - I haven't created a language yet and to be honest I don't think I have the ability to do so. Not sure what that has to do with my point, but OK.
- shin_lao 12y ago
  It can also mean that you actually don't have enough experience. In my career I was in that kind of place where I had decent experience and started to be overwhelmed with possibilities. As I gained even more knowledge, solutions appeared to me in a faster fashion and I spent much less time wondering.
  - robconery 12y ago
    I think experience is one thing I'm not short of.
emsy 12y ago
Thinking you know too much is the correct expression. There is this story about a student who solved a previously unsolvable math problem because he didn't know it was unsolvable (http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp). If you believe to know the limits of what is possible, you will hold yourself back. For the beginner, everything is possible. I think that's a wonderful message.
deleted 12y ago
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klagermkii 12y ago
Think of a company that has a large number of processes and policies that are required for any new project. These are frequently a mixture of industry best practices and structures that were put in place over time to prevent problems that happened before from recurring. All of these processes and policies were added with the best of intentions, but the cumulative weight of them can make it significantly more difficult or time consuming to start and complete a new project. I think mentally something similar can happen. With experience you're aware of a lot of the pitfalls you fell into with your previous projects and so you've learnt tools/methodologies/languages/programming styles that can help you avoid them. As you're working on a project you can find yourself spending more mental time thinking about avoiding mistakes of the past, rather than just aggressively (maybe blindly) moving forward on the project itself.
616c 12y ago
> Anytime someone says "I think too much" I feel the need to speak up. I always remind people of Robert DeNiro's quote from Ronin, when people mock his mindset. "Do you think I'm reluctant because I'm happy!?" That is my refrain all the time, and people still do not really get it, oh well.
ianbicking 12y ago
Note he says "I think too much" not "you think too much" (which I'm guessing is what your Mormon superiors were saying). Some decisions we can make for ourselves but are oppressive if we try to make them for someone else.

joshmlewis 12y ago

I don't know if this was his original meaning but I know living on the east coast in a town with hardly any tech startup successes, finding experienced people who have had real success to learn from is extremely difficult and leaves me thirsty for knowledge. Thus when I spend time traveling and learning from great people in places like SF and then come back here, I often feel like I "know too much" and need to be challenged because I can't seem to find fault in my own thinking. I'm deathly afraid of falling into the same mindset, whatever that may be, that caused all the startups around me to fail so I have this egotistical attitude at times when I'm not around people who challenge me. I'm learning and trying to grow past that faulty thinking but it is tough. Maybe this is partly what he was alluding to.

robconery 12y ago

OP here... I should say that I wrote this post rather late with a glass of wine in my hand and perhaps didn't use all the exact words to convey my point clearly. But let me address your points. "Thinking too much" seems to have hit a button for you; sorry about that. I do think this is a pretty common thing: The Paradox of Choice. That's sort of what I am feeling as I know quite a few languages and frameworks, and it's difficult for me to stop diddling over "what should I use" and just write it. I've spent my career creating things - I haven't created a language yet and to be honest I don't think I have the ability to do so. Not sure what that has to do with my point, but OK.

shin_lao 12y ago
It can also mean that you actually don't have enough experience. In my career I was in that kind of place where I had decent experience and started to be overwhelmed with possibilities. As I gained even more knowledge, solutions appeared to me in a faster fashion and I spent much less time wondering.
- robconery 12y ago
  I think experience is one thing I'm not short of.

emsy 12y ago

Thinking you know too much is the correct expression. There is this story about a student who solved a previously unsolvable math problem because he didn't know it was unsolvable (http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp). If you believe to know the limits of what is possible, you will hold yourself back. For the beginner, everything is possible. I think that's a wonderful message.

deleted 12y ago

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klagermkii 12y ago

Think of a company that has a large number of processes and policies that are required for any new project. These are frequently a mixture of industry best practices and structures that were put in place over time to prevent problems that happened before from recurring. All of these processes and policies were added with the best of intentions, but the cumulative weight of them can make it significantly more difficult or time consuming to start and complete a new project. I think mentally something similar can happen. With experience you're aware of a lot of the pitfalls you fell into with your previous projects and so you've learnt tools/methodologies/languages/programming styles that can help you avoid them. As you're working on a project you can find yourself spending more mental time thinking about avoiding mistakes of the past, rather than just aggressively (maybe blindly) moving forward on the project itself.

616c 12y ago

> Anytime someone says "I think too much" I feel the need to speak up. I always remind people of Robert DeNiro's quote from Ronin, when people mock his mindset. "Do you think I'm reluctant because I'm happy!?" That is my refrain all the time, and people still do not really get it, oh well.

ianbicking 12y ago

Note he says "I think too much" not "you think too much" (which I'm guessing is what your Mormon superiors were saying). Some decisions we can make for ourselves but are oppressive if we try to make them for someone else.