It seems that most of the people who “go insane” while thinking too much and who become too absorbed by questions, or those who get engulfed in MMORPGs just fail to establish and adhere to a set of basic ground rules.
If you want to think abstractly about the meaning of the word “is” or what Quality is, go ahead, but first establish a reasonable set of ground rules and adhere to them unconditionally. Adherence to a basic set of ground rules will ensure that one stays tied to the mundane yet necessary parts of everyday life. This is probably a larger trend throughout social behavior — lack of self-control — and it’s sad how many people grow up with an inadequate social education.
I don’t see it as an excuse though, as there have been many briiliant people who didn’t go insane and who still accomplished extraordinary things (e.g. Bertrand Russell, Isaac Newton, G.W.F. Leibniz, etc.). So the lesson seems to be: do everything in moderation. That’s a piece of wisdom worth living by.
That sounds like extreme moderation to me… :)
I’ve found that if you’re truly absorbed in a perpetual loop of questioning and have slipped off into “metaphysical lunacy”, the existence of necessary ground rules is itself scrutinized as intensely as any other subject, making it supremely difficult to find anything at all to subscribe to.
That’s why you need to have the discipline to say to yourself, you say, “Self, hold on just one cotton-pickin’ minute. This is going nowhere fast, and I have things to get done.” Then you determine the goal you hope to achieve by pestering yourself so relentlessly over one seemingly simple question, assess the pros and cons of spending your precious time on such an endeavor, and evaluate its relative worth in your system of values. Generally, if you value your sanity, you will abandon the cause, or at least get to a somewhat satisfying stopping point and decide not to pursue the matter any further.
My dad used to use the term “majoring in minors” to describe a person who spends an inordinately long time obsessing over an excruciatingly insignificant task.