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Why Does Thinking Hard Make One Sad?
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Berkeley, CA
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It seems that in general, thinking hard makes a person sad. People who live in the moment tend to be a lot happier than those who think hard about specific issues. Mentally retarded people are oftentimes very happy people, for this reason. Why is it the case, though? Why am I happy when I clear my head, but immediately saddened when I start thinking too hard? Why does thinking hard inevitably lead to negative thoughts?
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Last edited by tavilach; Jul 31, 2005 at 03:44 PM.
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"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
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Baninated
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Illinois might be cold and flat, but at least it's ugly.
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Ignorance is bliss, but it will get you nowhere fast.
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Mac Elite
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Happiness is what we're all after, even though we each have our own road to it. If you're in bliss, why would you want to "get anywhere"?
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"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
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Clinically Insane
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People who think about 1,000 issues at a time are not thinking hard; they're spinning their wheels. If you want to think hard about something, you need to learn how to focus your mind and not let it wander to so many irrelevant things. Quantity of thoughts is not related to quality.
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Chuck
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"Instead of either 'multi-talented' or 'multitalented' use 'bisexual'."
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by Chuckit
People who think about 1,000 issues at a time are not thinking hard; they're spinning their wheels. If you want to think hard about something, you need to learn how to focus your mind and not let it wander to so many irrelevant things. Quantity of thoughts is not related to quality.
Whoops: That's not what I meant. I edited my post to reflect what I actually meant.
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"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Originally Posted by tavilach
It seems that in general, thinking hard makes a person sad. People who live in the moment tend to be a lot happier than those who think hard about specific issues. Mentally retarded people are oftentimes very happy people, for this reason. Why is it the case, though? Why am I happy when I clear my head, but immediately saddened when I start thinking too hard? Why does thinking hard inevitably lead to negative thoughts?
Using the same device to get out of it that you use to get into it won't work.
You can't control what your mind will throw up but you can control how you handle it. I wouldn't sweat the details. 
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aka BlueSky
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2002
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It would certainly depend on the subject that your thinking about.
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"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." Winston Churchill
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Jul 2005
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The short answer to your question is because humanity's survival depended upon identifying threats (negatives) and overcoming them in advance. Even if you don't really have much to be threatened by, your biology is still tuned for this task. It will warn you of the evils behind every tree and under every rock. Pessimism, cynicism, negativity -- these are increasingly obsolete survival traits. Parts of our neurology left over from our fight-or-flight days have a difficult time letting us rest.
In short: the problem is our chosen focus of attention.
The increasing development of the frontal lobe enables more sophisticated responses. Learning how to quiet the mind and find joy is an art, and arguably more valuable than the ability to cogitate. In this area of the mind some eastern societies are way ahead of us.
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