The dangers of overthinking...

Discussing the dangers of overthinking a project before starting it, Oliver Burkeman rather nicely encapsulates the hazard of conflating thinking about something with actually doing it:

An especially sneaky form of thinking as a substitute for doing is "deciding", since it seems so bold and courageous. ("I’m the decider!" George Bush famously declared - making the point, however clumsily, that deciding means running the show.) Yet a decision alone changes nothing. As Gregg Krech writes in his book The Art Of Taking Action, external reality remains exactly the same after your decision to ask someone out, to write a book, or leave your job. What matters is "creating ripples", as he puts it - actions, however tiny, that alter things in the world outside your head.