See avatar. . .

I agree with much of the above. I'm very guilty of and prone to overthinking things. I suppose analysis, introspection, understanding, pursuit of truth and education are to be valued but I know it's something with me that sometimes gets in the way of "just doing it". I guess for some people it's an easy trap to fall into. You're so consumed with "getting it right" and not making a stupid error that you'll look/feel dumb for later that you overthink stuff and possibly miss windows of opportunity. I've gotten better about this in past years though. Knowing when to say "okay, I have enough information now where I'm at the point of diminishing returns" is important.

+1 to the running/biking thing as a mental escape. Nothing to do but be alone with your thoughts, concentrating on your own breathing and/or cadence and letting your mind be free for a while each day. I really value those times.

Try this:

Instead of looking at a problem and saying: "Where can I get all the information I can to make the perfect decision?"

Instead say: "What is the minimum I need to know to make a good decision?"

Occam's razor

Also, and this may seem a joke, what is the worse that can happen?

I mean in our lives we make very few defining decisions: do I want to get married? who do I marry? Do I want to have kids? etc.

The rest, really, are all minor decisions and their consequences can be dealt with.

Somethimes I do ask myself if I am a little shallow.... but then I think that I have very few things that I consider important, the well being and happiness of my wife and girls... the rest doesn't bother me that much.

I am a big proponent of the OODA Loop...Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, all overlapping and interacting.

Decisions must be made, action must be taken in all walks of life...the OODA Loop works for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_Loop

A different approach that I've found helpful sometimes is to just try to avoid the wrong decision. A for example, the question often comes up here on Pelican "What engine spec will give me the most HP?". That's a tough question to answer. A far easier approach is to avoid the bad configurations...
- Ensure adequate flow in and out of the engine.
- Make sure that the intake flow isn't too slow
- Make sure that you don't pick the wrong cam for your application
- Make sure that you don't have any obvious weaknesses in the bottom end which will shorten the engine's life -- for example spinning a 70.4 mm crank to 8500 RPM without the proper modifications. etc.

Once you've eliminated most or all of the "Bad" decisions, chances are the results will be OK. In the case of the engine example, if you avoid the bad configuration decisions listed above, chances are your engine will be right up there in the better half of the distribution.

If you can keep yourself in the top half of the class time after time in life, chances are you'll be doing OK.

I have never been accused of over-thinking.

I have no doubt that you and Bob are correct about the subconscious...the mind is an amazing thing (too bad it only applies to some of us :)).

Playing pool to the best of my (poor) ability...there are many levels to that game, and I'm working to climb up from the bottom rung. If I'm thinking of anything other than the game, I'm blowing that goal...

(edit) Scott, I consider you to be an extremely bright young man...so yeah, "overthinking" could be a problem for you.