Under-Confidence in BR - advice?

keepgoing.keepgoing. Member
in General 365 karma

So, during blind review I end up changing a lot of my answers from correct ones to incorrect ones,convincing myself why it is right. I think, possibly I overthink things and doubt myself a lot. Any idea for what I can do to work on this. I have a lot of practice with things so I don't know why I still doubt myself... I wish I could have more confidence in myself and trust my gut.

Comments

  • jessica.jaeger14jessica.jaeger14 Alum Member
    15 karma

    Something I love doing during BR is writing out my reasoning because then I think it makes me realize what my thoughts were. So I write why the right answer is right and why the wrong answers are wrong. And then if you change it you can see what went wrong in the thought process.

  • Jonathan WangJonathan Wang Yearly Sage ⭐
    edited May 2020 6869 karma

    We need to reframe the issue a bit. 'Overthinking' is not the problem. If you blame 'overthinking', then you're suggesting that more time to think about the problem is a bad thing.

    It's not that you're 'overthinking' - you're thinking wrong. It has nothing to do with how many times you see the question. Someone with perfect logic would give you the same analysis every single time, no matter how many times you showed him the same question and no matter how many different (wrong) interpretations of it you try to feed him. The problem lies with you talking yourself into a bad line of reasoning and abandoning a good line of reasoning for it, which is a skills problem every single time.

    To fix it, you need to be able to understand why those lines of reasoning are no good, not just try to cut your process off at the perfect time to avoid the mistake that you're about to make. Or in other words, rather than wonder how you can have more confidence in your first instinct, it really ought to be the exact opposite - you should be learning that you shouldn't have confidence (yet) in your first instinct, because you are not yet capable of distinguishing good reasoning from bad reasoning. The goal, then, is not to prop up unwarranted confidence - it is to develop the skills necessary to ensure that any confidence that you do feel is warranted.

    Always remember that "trust my gut" is not a problem solving methodology.

  • keepgoing.keepgoing. Member
    365 karma

    @"Jonathan Wang" said:
    We need to reframe the issue a bit. 'Overthinking' is not the problem. If you blame 'overthinking', then you're suggesting that more time to think about the problem is a bad thing.

    It's not that you're 'overthinking' - you're thinking wrong. It has nothing to do with how many times you see the question. Someone with perfect logic would give you the same analysis every single time, no matter how many times you showed him the same question and no matter how many different (wrong) interpretations of it you try to feed him. The problem lies with you talking yourself into a bad line of reasoning and abandoning a good line of reasoning for it, which is a skills problem every single time.

    To fix it, you need to be able to understand why those lines of reasoning are no good, not just try to cut your process off at the perfect time to avoid the mistake that you're about to make. Or in other words, rather than wonder how you can have more confidence in your first instinct, it really ought to be the exact opposite - you should be learning that you shouldn't have confidence (yet) in your first instinct, because you are not yet capable of distinguishing good reasoning from bad reasoning. The goal, then, is not to prop up unwarranted confidence - it is to develop the skills necessary to ensure that any confidence that you do feel is warranted.

    Always remember that "trust my gut" is not a problem solving methodology.

    Wow incredibly insightful. thanks so much!!!! Will reflect on this.

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