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

now they say “you can just do things”

it hits different. it’s simple. real.

these people are in control. things consistently work out for them.

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 overthinking is there to protect you. keep you breathing. but now? in this relatively safe world?

the risk/reward ratio of doing things is 1000x higher

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 i did was become aware of it

this is hard because we trade any moment of boredom with distractions. just a constant craving for .. anything that isn’t sitting with yourself

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

each rep got me closer to my midwit identity beginning to crack

i saw new things, like how i actually took pride in overthinking (made me feel smart and productive)

i didn’t know it at the time, but i was preparing myself

preparing myself for a moment

these moments happen all the time. to everyone. but you aren’t the person you need to be to notice them yet.

so they just .. pass

then one day my moment arrived and i was ready:

a friend landed a dream job at a startup literally by applying for fun (and moved from DC -> LA just 2 weeks later)

it clicked. this was my moment (if you were wondering .. old me wouldn’t have seen just how ready and capable i was to do this same exact thing. he needed to find an idea he loved first, oh then read paul graham’s essays again, etc)

but not everything changed right away for me ..

i now saw that not just my startup dreams were effected, but my day to day personal life too

i was displaying midwit behavior HUNDREDS of times a day. yes, a day!

this was a tough pill to swallow

so what next ??

after this moment i started catching my midwit behavior more and more. understanding was happening, not knowing. knowing is looking up the definition of midwit. true understanding can’t be put into words (so I won’t try).

i started exploring. looking for more 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 can’t beat overthinking by overthinking about how to stop overthinking

and lets be honest here. i still fall into the midwit trap a lot. but not NEARLY as much as before .. it can take a while to undo

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

you can just do things