ELI5- Why do you sometimes find yourself thinking things you don’t want to think?

Question

ELI5- Why do you sometimes find yourself thinking things you don’t want to think?

In: Other

Answer 1

Your brain, at its most fundamental level, is really only good at two things: recognizing patterns and predicting what comes next in a pattern. But importantly, it is not perfect at either task. Every so often, you’re just wrong about what you’re perceiving or you’re prompted into generating a nonsense idea.

But acting on a dumb or incorrect idea can potentially be disastrously, so your brain evolved the ability to analyze itself. You can’t stop the bad ideas at the source without stopping all the ideas, but you can check those ideas beforehand. That makes you aware of whatever you’re thinking and however incorrect it feels.