Thought of the Day: I swear to you that to think too much is a disease, a real, actual disease. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

November 7, 2025

If Dostoyevsky thought too much thinking was a disease, I’m pretty sure I’ve been terminal for years. My brain doesn’t have an “off” switch, it just has a dimmer that flickers between “mildly anxious” and “existential crisis.”

There’s a certain comedy in realizing your mind is both your greatest strength and your biggest bully. I can overanalyze a text message, replay a conversation, and mentally storyboard a future disaster all before breakfast. Sometimes I think my mind just likes to keep itself entertained.

And yet, there’s truth in what Dostoyevsky said. Thinking too much is a kind of illness, but not one that needs medicine. It needs management. It’s what happens when our survival instincts outlive their usefulness. Cavemen needed to think about predators and fire. We think about emails and missed calls. The brain’s still doing its job, it’s just gotten terrible at context.

I like to imagine Dostoyevsky himself lying awake, staring at a candle, mentally rewriting the same paragraph while wondering if his existential dread was relatable enough. Because that’s the thing: people who think too much are often the ones who feel too much. They notice details, patterns, and possibilities that others miss. The problem is, that awareness doesn’t come with an “enough” setting.

Overthinking feels productive, it feels like you’re doing something. But it’s really just a mental treadmill. You run, you sweat, and you stay in the same place. The trick isn’t to shut off your brain; it’s to redirect it. Take all that restless energy and turn it outward. Write something. Build something. Say the thing. Make the art on the cave wall, even if someone else calls it “primitive.”

Because the alternative is paralysis. It’s living entirely in the world of what-ifs and should-haves. The more time we spend thinking, the less time we spend doing.

And maybe that’s the cure Dostoyevsky missed: action. The antidote to overthinking isn’t peace, it’s motion.

You can’t think your way into clarity. You have to move your way into it.

So, here’s my challenge today: the next time you catch yourself lost in your own head, take one small step into the real world. Hit publish. Send the message. Go for the walk. Draw the bison.

It might not quiet the noise completely, but it’ll remind you who’s really in charge of your mind.

🧠 Read the full blog post where I explore this Thought of the Day and the Question of the Day

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