"Thinking" is a term with many different senses in English. Here are some,

• Considering
• Deliberating
• Imagining
• Calculating (especially in modern times where computer and brain comparisons are so widespread)
• Repeating (e.g. to memorize something)
• Worrying (to which someone might say to you, "quit thinking so much!")
• Planning
• Analyzing

Sometimes people decide to "think out loud", which may mean talking and having someone else listen—or, more similar to what I'm doing here—put some words on a piece of paper or text document (if you like to use computers sometimes).

Over-thinking

The idea of overthinking is that at a certain point, analysis of some situation is done. You know what you have to or should do, now will you do it?

Overthinking means avoiding doing concrete actions you already know should be done and instead engaging in additional "thinking".

Failure to think

On the other hand, not thinking is usually used to refer to someone who does something impulsively, without understanding what would be to a more discerning person obvious consequences of some action. For example, if a friend signs up for some scam and pays a whole bunch of money, you would say that this friend wasn't thinking properly (did they just give into emotions, greed?). Likewise you might say this friend failed to do a correct action—such as consulting someone more trustworthy and knowledgeable about investments—and rushed into something without patience.

Institutionalized Wrong Thing

Many habits of thinking are taught in educational institutions that can do more harm than good. I've been coming to the conclusion that we (collectively as a society) place an overemphasis on creativity and calculating, exemplified by the enthusiasm of many to get involved in game programing. While I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with game programing itself, the reasons people might get involved in a field like this seem to often stem from certain ideas about thinking which are prominent in popular culture.

Firstly, there is creativity—which to a modern person often means something like "making something new". So rather than turning to time-tested, known methods and forms for doing stuff, kids are encouraged to blaze their own path and introduce new innovations. The big tech companies in particular like to push this idea of the "Iron Man" technology hero or corporate idea-person.

One problem with this—pointed out by Sam Hyde in many skits/videos—is that you get armies of useless "artist" types who are unwilling or unable to participate in "real work" and instead insist on the importance of their "creative" projects in writing, art, music, film, and so on.

Now, this is not a tirade against individuality. We are all unique—whether we want to be or not. But it is telling that many people are encouraged down paths that lead them to be vain, egotistical, bitter, angry, and also "unsuccessful" in terms of money/reputation. This is what so many so-called "creative" people experience.

Game programing also involves lots of tedious calculation—what is programing anyways, besides giving instructions to computers? Calculating is often very difficult (it can be hard to write software solutions) and it takes a lot of time and effort to become a skilled programer—not everyone can do it.

...and what results are produced?

While I enjoy playing games from time to time, there is a kind of consensus that "playing too many games is a waste of time".

Whereas growing, processing, selling and distributing healthy food wouldn't be called a "waste of time" by anyone (we all need food to live), devoting most of one's time and energy to produce entertainment seems a bit off as a mainstream path to encourage millions of young people down.

Less nerdy types might take to the activity of creating a brand. As with games, I don't think that this is inherently bad (you have to know who to trust—brands can help us know who we are interfacing with). But what difference does "brand" make if all your choices come from the same slave-labor factories with near-identical looking logos/graphics (thinking about a lot of "fashion" these days)?

Doing versus "thinking"

This post explores the idea of how "thinking" often is a vain, futile activity—especially in many of the forms our mainstream/popular culture encourages it. Do NOT try to think of 100 more Pokémon. You have better things to do.

Rather, we should allow proper time to reflect, deliberate, and so forth (maybe paired with going for a walk, keeping a little notebook in the car...). But then most of our time should be turned to doing things that we know we should be doing.

Building a schedule/routine is an effective way to reduce the amount of time spent dilly-dallying and get to work. This is because you will spend less time in deliberating "oh, what should I do next?"