The Psychology of Do Something Syndrome

Ideas

July 17, 2015 7:00 AM EDT

Parrish is the entrepreneur and wisdom seeker behind Farnam Street and the host of The Knowledge Project Podcast, where he focuses on turning timeless insights into action. His new book is Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments Into Extraordinary Results

“We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.” — Roman satirist Petronius Arbiter

I was flipping back through one of my favorite books, Seeking Wisdom, when I came across this quote in the section where Bevelin talks about ‘Do Something Syndrome.’

There is something almost poetic in the way that Petronius so succinctly captures a phenomenon that most of us have been through.

There are numerous reasons why someone may choose action over the more logical course of inaction — some conscious and others subconscious. We may, for instance, act on bad advice when we haven’t done the work to understand a problem, we may succumb to peer pressure, the idea that ‘everyone is doing it,’ we may follow our hearts (and buy that fancy car we really want instead of keeping the reliable one we have), blindly follow the lead of an expert, or, perhaps most dangerously, we may simply want to appear like we are doing something.

Maybe we just can’t sit still. This idea isn’t new.

“I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to sit quietly in his room.” — Blaise Pascal

We all have moments where we fall victim to the curse of Do Something Syndrome. In fact the modern organization is full of do something syndrome. The key is to try and realize when we are doing it and back away.

So next time you feel the urge to do something for the sake of doing something remember these words of wisdom from Bevelin:

The 19th Century American writer Henry David Thoreau said: ‘It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?’ Don’t confuse activity with results. There is no reason to do a good job with something you shouldn’t do in the first place.”

Charles Munger says, ‘We’ve got great flexibility and certain discipline in terms of not doing some foolish thing just to be active – discipline in avoiding just doing any d— thing just because you can’t stand inactivity.’

What do you want to accomplish? As Warren Buffett says, ‘There’s no use running if you’re on the wrong road.’

Still curious? Most of what you’re going to do today is not essential.

This piece originally appeared on Farnam Street.

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The Curse of the ‘Do Something’ Syndrome

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