The Poison Arrow Principle: How to Stop Overthinking
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The Poison Arrow Principle: How to Stop Overthinking
Here's an old Buddhist story I think about often:
Imagine someone is struck by a poisoned arrow. A doctor is called to remove the arrow, but the man stops him.
'Not so fast! Before you remove it, I want to know who shot me. What town or village does he come from? What kind of wood was his bow made from? Was it a crossbow or a longbow?'
While he asks the questions, the poison takes hold and he dies.Like the man in the story, we occasionally get shot with the poisoned arrows of life. But ruminating too much on the nature of those arrows is unlikely to help.
This is a trap we all fall into:
We think we need more information to solve our problems, when all we really need is more action.
The trap is becoming more challenging to avoid in a modern era where information is abundant.
We've become conditioned to get our dopamine from information gathering.
But you see, dopamine from information gathering is a dangerous drug. It convinces you that information alone is enough. That it's sufficient. That it's all you need.
But information alone is never enough. Information is nothing without action.
The information meant to push you forward can quickly start to hold you back.
Struck with the poison arrow, you feel a surge of satisfaction from learning that your attacker was from a nearby village, that his bow was made from oak, and that it was a longbow.
And then, you're dead, because the information you wanted had become a distraction from the action you needed.
This is what I call the Poison Arrow Principle:
Never allow information-gathering to get in the way of action-taking.
The next time you're in an overthinking loop, ask yourself:
Do I really need more information, or do I simply need to act on the information I already have?
