# Your examples of overthinking things

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-examples-of-overthinking-things/825083>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 25, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-examples-of-overthinking-things/825083 "2018-11-25T23:13:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-examples-of-overthinking-things/825083/1 "2018-11-25T23:13:00Z")

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Have you ever spent hours doing something the hard way, only to finally realize there was a much quicker and simpler way to do it? My _latest_ example is that I need to make a cardboard five pointed star; I spent I don’t know how long looking up how you construct a regular pentagon, until I finally remembered I could download and print an example.

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**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-examples-of-overthinking-things/825083/2 "2018-11-26T00:23:27Z")

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Well…I overthink everything, friend. Like you I tend to go off on wild rides trying to do or make something. I have learned, over the years, to stop at a particular point and ask an uninterested other and see if I am really all the way down the rabbit hole and need to rethink. It helps, sometimes.

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-examples-of-overthinking-things/825083/3 "2018-11-26T00:43:42Z")

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Sharpening [card scrapers](https://www.amazon.com/Crown-Hand-Tools-Rectangular-375/dp/B012M9H8UG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1543192812&sr=8-4&keywords=card+scraper) for woodworking. Everything you see seems to tell you to clamp the scraper in your vise, then use a file on it. But it’s impossible to keep the file at a 90 degree angle to the scraper to either polish or flatten. I tried unsuccessfully to think of a way to make a jig, then had a brilliant flash of simplification: don’t clamp the scraper, clamp the file. :smack:

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**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-examples-of-overthinking-things/825083/4 "2018-11-26T04:04:36Z")

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Just today I attempted to bypass the shift lockout feature on the steering (fuck autocorrect KOLUM) on the Jeep XJ by drilling a small hole and inserting a roll-pin.

All greasy and no way would a drill bit find purchase.

Fuck it. Just secure it with a tiny rare earth magnet.