Are there any benefits to thinking?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Before you go all “$·&/!!!” on me, I´d like to make the thread title a bit more clear:

Are there any benefits to pure thinking, that is to thinking about stuff without a purpose?

Is thinking for the sake of curiosity or for no sake at all good for you?

I think that thinking in general is better and makes you “wiser” than a person who does not think for pleasure, but I lack evidence to prove it.

However, I also think that “over-thinking” something can lead you to dumb conclusions and is not good for your health.

So, fellow Dopers, what do you think and about thinking?

2

Of course. Not only does it encourage your mind to look at things from all angles, many things have been conceptualized by accident, when a person was just daydreaming.

3

“Thinking” is the bane of my life.

Only as I approach middle age am I finding it easier to not think. It makes me a bit less miserable when I refrain from dwelling on the bad stuff.

4

Q: Are there any benefits to running if you have no specific destination? You’re not trying to catch anything or getting away from anything, just running.
A: Of course. It helps keep your body in a condition to work when you do need to run from or after something.

The mind needs exercise, too.

5

This. Just thinking is when you give your mind the chance to roam, and it lets your subconscious pop up with new ideas and the answers to your problems. It’s why so many people get ideas in the shower.

6

dahhhhhhh…

…huh?

7

In some (many?) people, the act of deep thought also stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain. That alone is a benefit.

8

hmm? sorry, no thoughts on this.

9

Hmmm, gratuitous stimulation of the thought centers solely for pleasure. Surely there is a term for this?

IMHO Thinking is good. Thinking about ‘nothing’ is good too as long as you’re not too seriously pondering the concept of nothing. And just sitting and encouraging your mind to ‘be quiet’ is best of all.

10

“Hmmm. I don’t like it. It started me thinking. I didn’t get where I am today by thinking. My father once caught me thinking, and I’ll never forget what he said: “C.J.”, he said - we were never close - “C.J.”, he said “remember this - thinking doesn’t get the washing up done”.”

CJ, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perin

11

But thinking causes dishwashing machines to be invented.

12

It seems to me there’s a big difference between “thinking about nothing” and “not thinking about anything”. Let me think about it.

13

Self-abstruse?
:slight_smile:

To the OP: Yes, I consider thinking to be a generally good thing in its own right. Intellectual exercise is beneficial in itself, and the process can often lead to insights and ideas that more directed concentration might not arrive at.

14

But it does make tasks like washing dishes a whole lot less boring, if you think about something else while you do them.

15

But the ideas I get in the shower are answers to questions I already have. They’re not usually completely unrelated ideas for the sake of thinking.

16

Yeah - Why is it that we commonly do our best thinking while washing our bodies???

17

Because all our minds are dirty and want to join in on the fun the body is having?

18

Sometimes I entertain myself with thinking and I’ve made myself laugh out loud a couple of times.

Damn. I’ve become that crazy old woman at the bus stop.

19

In the psychology book I am using in class, it mentions that for truly creative people, there is a period of incubation - subconscious thoughts - that eventually bubble up and become great inspiration.

They mention in the book that many of the most creative people they interviewed said that their greatest ideas came after long periods of seemingly inactive thought, but in reality, they first started thinking about the idea long before they found the inspiration to complete it.

Now, the real question is: Can you force yourself to start having these subconscious creative thoughts?

The current theory is yes - simply by thinking about something long and hard enough, the brain sort of takes over and keeps working on the idea(s) even though you are not fully aware of the continuing process. That is how the creative mind eventually figures it out and comes to the “aha!” moment - and you suddenly get the inspiration you were looking for. It sort of pops into your mind.

Think about it.

20

I wish I had a nickle for everytime I was laying in bed and thought of something profoundly enlightened or philosophical.

I always tall myself “Ok, I need to remeber that for in the morning so I can talk to so-n-so about it. Or maybe even start a thread here on the Dope!!”

Of course by morning time I’ve completely forgot what the hell I was thinking so all the greatness gets lost in the void.
Also, I can’t tell you what a stroke it is for my ego when I think of something really cool on my own only to find out that some great person in history thought of the very same thing first!