this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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When coming across an unfamiliar problem, does anyone else feel themselves be possessed by the "problem solver"? It's like the rational part of your brain doesn't think it needs to be there so it delegates to your lizard brain and your lizard brain decides to "solve" the problem itself.
It's so jarring how much can "seem like a good idea at the time".
Sort of, but not the lizard brain part. My rationality stays intact except I become too stubborn to reasonably decide if it's worth the time and effort to solve this problem (spoiler: usually not). If it seems solvable then dammit I wanna figure it out, to hell with other considerations.
Tell me more about this feeling.
It's like a step above autopilot. It feels like the rational parts of your brain are locked off to you and the world is briefly as confusing to you as when you were a kid.
Obviously you can shake out of it and think harder about your scenario, but usually you just want the thing over and done with and that leaves you fumbling about long enough to make a bad decision.
I experience the opposite even when I'm under time pressure (running late for something). When I discover some small, unrelated problem my brain will switch to problem solving mode and focus on this new task instead. This way I totally loose track of time, even though I was totally stressed out about it a second ago. This can happen with stuff like a broken tool but also if I happen to look at a sudoku.
sounds like burnout :(
Not at all, no.