you have seen it tweeted:

you can just do things

— Sam Altman (@sama) December 21, 2024

people used to say “the world is your oyster” (which felt like BS)

but you can just do things hits different. it’s simple. real.

you are in control. things consistently work out for you.

but for some reason you aren’t one of these people.

it’s not because you physically can’t be. no, you definitely can.

its because you are midwit.

the kind of person who overthinks everything and is scared. tries to be perfect and outsmart everyone

you whisper “what will they think?” “i need a plan!” “what if I am wrong?”

this meme exposed me. i was here for many years. it feels like you are on the right track, but nothing ever really happens.

a lot of people are midwit. it sucks, but if we weren’t, we would be extinct. this paranoia kept us alive when saber tooth tigers wanted to eat our faces off

(so don’t blame yourself for being midwit)

this kind of thinking is there to protect you. keep you breathing. but now? in this relatively safe world? the risk to reward ratio of doing things is 1000x higher. ya just don’t need it.

so what can you do?

i’ll be straight with you. i can’t solve your problems for you. this is YOUR problem. you need to see it in YOUR life. im just gonna tell you my story:

all you need to do is be aware of it (this is hard)

midwit was my identity. plus i hit myself with so much information and caffeine it was impossible to be aware of

it took me years to actually change, despite knowing i was midwit

i was meditating a lot and beginning to see, when a friend landed a dream job at a startup literally by applying for fun

it clicked. i finally saw 100% proof that you can just do things

i began to realize i displayed midwit behavior HUNDREDS of times a day. yes, a day!

this was a tough pill to swallow btw. it was a “what have i done” moment looking back on all the wasted effort i put into planning success

so you need to start catching your midwit behavior. this is the process of understanding, not knowing. knowing is looking up the definition. true understanding can’t be put into words (so I won’t try).

you need to explore. look for people and examples. once you see the contrast and feel yourself default to overthinking, its grip on you starts to slip.

then accept it. it’s a losing battle to fight or wish away. i tried to fight it by doing what i did best: overplanning and optimizing everything, putting me right back to being midwit again and again

you might take pride in thinking deeply through things. i did too. this will take a while to undo

but give it some time and introspection and i assure you like all the others

you can just do things