Fyodor Dostoyevsky Has a Message for the Overthinking Artist
What can a 162 year old Russian novella teach young artists about overthinking?
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground is a great case study on the cost of being perpetually stuck in analysis paralysis, especially for creative people. The same creative capacity that could make you a great artist is also what allows you to imagine hundreds of ways you could fail, or worse, be misunderstood.
I recently read Dostoevsky’s 1864 book, which is essentially a portrait of an intelligent man— with a sharp, often truthful understanding of the world— who ultimately dismisses anyone who actually does anything as simple or naive. The narrator often casts the magnanimous “doer” as flawed, because to him, acting on anything in an imperfect world means that you are either 1) not intelligent enough to see the corruption, or 2) you do see all the flaws and mistakes of society (including your role in it) and choose to engage in it anyway.
Portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky Oil on paper, 5x7”
Our narrator, the underground man, recounts his life spent picking apart the doers while building an airtight world view that leads him to toil in inaction.
To see a character deeply desire connection to other people, respect, and fulfillment while thinking his way out of any action which would bring him closer to that which he craves, is cathartic. It masterfully illustrates that you cannot think your way into perfect action, you instead must make peace with the fear that comes with imperfect action. It’s an important reminder for me— an artist regularly feeling vulnerable in the studio, and especially so as I drop my work into the algorithmic abyss— that doubt is a part of the creative process. It’s not something to run and hide from, but simply an inevitability of possessing potential energy.
We push through that which seeks to undermine our growth or we spend a career, a life, wondering what could have been. And to me, if that energy we all have in us to create and do what we feel called to do in life is left untapped, it becomes a force dragging us into frustration and the dismissal of others’ works and achievements.
What Dostoyevsky illustrates so well in this short book is that while overthinking your life is tempting, and even in some ways noble, the perpetual inaction it can create is a much worse reality as it manifests as bitterness and regret.
So, while that blank canvas or the painting you’ve been too scared to share online may seem daunting, the alternative might be significantly worse.
“Not overthinking anything, just feeling alright”
Notes from Underground is a must read for anyone who self identifies as someone who’s good at reading a room and has creative ambitions.
And check out my newest YouTube video to hear my full thoughts on this book and why it’s relevant now more than ever. You can watch me paint a portrait of the author while you listen 😉