in praise of overthinking

Whenever you want to make a planner shut up the approved thing to say seems to be "you're overthinking'.

Creatives are very prone to this. But everyone does it.

I hate this. Not only is it a dumb thing to say but it's also hugely self-congratulatory. It always suggests that you, you silly dear planner, have got lost in the thickets of your little intellectual shrubbery wheras I, the mighty empath of creativity have divined the way forward through instinct alone. I am never confused between forest or trees because I stand like a mighty redwood of intuition, master of the whole landscape, never thinking too little and never, ever thinking too much. And it is clear to me, as clear as a freshly minted contact lens, that the moment I stop understanding something is the moment it becomes overthought.

I exaggerate. But you know what I mean. It's a synonym for complicating. Obfuscating. Confusing.

But overthinking is a much maligned art.

Overthinkers are exactly what we need more of. Because all the expected answers have already been had, by all the people who just think the industry standard amount of thinking. We need people who can't leave a problem alone, who will persist in gazing at and thinking about something until it yields some unexpected truths.

My favourite piece of fiction is a masterpiece of overthinking - Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine. Some of my favouite writing on the web is all overthinking. City Of Sound is a great example. Or this great overthinking about meat from Schulze and Webb. Or Standinaqueue. And one of the reasons I like working with jeffre is he can't help but overthink everything, and it's always brilliant.

I can already hear people saying it - come on russell, you're overthinking overthinking.

But I don't think I am, I think overthinking is that fantastic ability some people have to really examine, illuminate and understand the value, joy and interestingness in something that everyone else is already bored with, or ignores because they assume all the thinking has been done. That's a core skill for planners, designers, all sorts of people because, let's face it, a lot of the time, we're being asked to find something interesting to say about something that no-one thinks has much value. And it helps if we can find real value rather than just make stuff up.

It's the overthinkers that notice things. That think beyond the expected. I feel another t-shirt coming on; overthinking is not a crime.

Comments

[Ben]

Tshirt: Let me overthink about that

[Cam Beck]

Nice work. And I don't know for certain that I am saying so because I've been told numerous times that I overthink things.

We definitely need our own club. Or, perhaps as you said, a t-shirt will do.

[Mark McGuinness]

Overthinking, undervalued.

[williamdeed]

Thank you Russell, you're too kind.

If anyone wants to give this recently graduated, unemployed, overthinking queue spotter a job/placement, please get in touch.

I am a copywriter but willing to diversify.

Email for CV.

[Ciaran Rogers]

Thank you for writing this. As a proud and prolific overthinker, I just want to lob in a counterpoint - what about simplicity? I feel it's synonomous with the "over thinking critique" and in that same vein, I find it equally as frustrating when someone's comment is "You've got to make it more simple." I usually think (on the inside), "Whatever you miopic neanderthal, why does your lack of vision always seem to be my problem?"

Regardless of my own frustrations, I'd like to argue that a lot of overthinking is a function of our of muddled thought processes. While they sometimes lead to a truly insightful telegraphic idea would it be the end of the world if a detail or two of the thought process is disregarded for the sake of communication?

[Chris]

Overthinking has a cost: time. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. That's the risk.

[Gavin Heaton]

Perhaps if there was more overthinking up front, there would be less post-facto rationalisation required.

[Antonio Monerris]

“Right between the eyes” I really celebrated your comment.
Yes My name is Antonio Monerris and I am a overthinker. I ´ve been avoiding overthinking for two hours …
Unfortunately I am beginning to overthink again. It is terrible.
But I easily become bored by cynic and lazy people that never challenge current statements
Thanks Russell

[Rob @ Cynic]

It's not overthinking that's a problem, it's the bloody underthinking that causes all the shit.

[Scamp]

Dear Planners Who Read Russell's Blog,

Creatives use the term "overthinking" when they really mean overcomplicating, but are trying to be polite.

Of course there's nothing wrong with overthinking.

Overthinking is great. Yes, let's go deeper, get a better answer, reach people in a more profound way.

But overcomplicating is bad. You don't want to lose people, or confuse them.

If the creatives don't "get it" - and most of them went to Cambridge too you know, despite the ripped jeans - there's not much chance consumers will.

[Rob @ Cynic]

Scamp - you are the Dennis Wise of advertising ... you could start a fight in an empty house which I sort-of, in a totally weird way, respect.

Of course it is about thinking deeper rather than complicating it further - I am sure Russell would totally agree - because as you rightly said, if the consumer doesn't 'get it' or isn't motivated by it, then it's all a pile of intellectual wank ... ironically, often practiced by people who went to Cambridge Uni and now have an inherent need to show off [or validate] their supposed brain power despite it having little relevance to the Mum with 3 kids in Mansfield who they are trying to connect with.

I must admit this Planning vs Creative is getting pretty shit [how has it got like this, it's never been like it in any of the agencies I've worked at] but as you sound a right hard bugger, I'll leave you well alone - especially as your blog makes me smile 82.57% of the time. [I threw that % in just to make you angry abour planners and their statistics, ha!]

[Cam Beck]

Most designers I know are very good about saying if they think something will mess up the design, and they have no problem saying it's too complicated.

The "overthinking" card is more often used when pressed to design something without first identifying the audience or how the solution offered is going to solve that audience's problem.

[The Scamp]

Well, Rob, love the "hard as Dennis Wise" crack. Only wish I was!

Seriously, though. If Russell describes an expression that "creatives are very prone to" as "dumb" and "hugely self-congratulatory"... I gotta stand tall and speak up for my creative brothers and sisters, no?

And I'm certainly not starting a fight in an empty house because this isn't an empty house! It's packed in here. A thronging, teeming, mansion of the mind.

Yes, the debate between planners and creatives can get a bit tiresome. But we are English. It's important to have a good moan.

And hey, I'm sure that in a car dealership, the mechanics bitch about the salesmen, and vice versa.

[The Scamp]

All right, time for another proper point, rather than rambling self-defence.

If you are a planner, and you hear from the creatives that you are "overthinking", these are the things that could mean.

1. You are overcomplicating (ok, we've covered this)

2. You are being excessively rational. This is something planners, dare I suggest, are "prone to". A lot of great strategies (most?) are not rational.

3. In a quest to be clever, perhaps, you are overlooking the obvious. Just occasionally, the obvious is the right answer.

p.s. all these words are spoken out of love, as you can probably gather i am one of those creatives that loves the talking to the planners part of my job, even after Russell revealed that you're always trying to "influence me", or play me like a violin, as he put it!

[Rob @ Cynic]

Mr Scamp - if you are saying you are not the Dennis Wise of Adland, then maybe I should say "Come An' 'Ave A Go If You Think You're 'Ard Enuff" - except as I said, you do make me laugh ... and I do respect you standing up for your creative boys and girls even though I still think Russell probably didn't mean it to come out the way it did.

You are right that all categories have elements that sort-of dislike eachother ... Fireman vs Policemen / Marketing vs Sales / Media vs Creative / Mum's vs Dad's ... it's just that the most successful of these tend to repect what eachother does and the results they achieve prove it.

I'd just love it if we could nurture the planning / creative sides too because that is when the best things happen [HHCL [RIP] being probably the best case in point]

As I said, there's alot of agencies out there [well, not strictly 'alot' but quite a few'] that have planning and creative working as one, united team - and if there is anything they are against, it's not other disciplines within the agency ... it's other agencies who produce mediocre crap.

Anyway, lets not make this Kramer Vs Kramer between you and Russell ... lets get it back to Titanic [haha] because deep inside I know you both love eachother and probably want to 'get a room'!!!

Ta. Rob [a.k.a. "ARC" - Advertising Relate Council]

[Rob @ Cynic]

Russell ... Scamp ... you can find 'love resolution' by simply clicking on the link below - a site created especially for you:

www.makelovenotinterdepartmentwar.wordpress.com

[Jason Lonsdale]

Thinking, overthinking... whatever.

Planners need to throughly think through the problem before presenting an elegantly simple solution to the creatives. I think it was Oliver Wendall Holmes who coined "simplicity beyond complexity"...

Mark Cridge made a great comment the other day about planners who "show their workings" to creatives, and that this just leads to accusations of over-complexity. We don't need to do our long division in front of creatives, as long as they are confident in the fact that we've done it and that we have a cogent reason for our solution.