Wil Wheaton is a psych class.

Of course I don't mean this in a negative way, that's just how it feels. On Monday he's okay with his acting on Star Trek, on Tuesday he's not. But on Wednesday, he's okay with not being okay with the job and the experience, and on Thursday he's fine with being fine with it. Know what this reminds me of?

Poker.

What do I have and what can I get with two cards coming? What does he have? What does he think I have? What does he think that I think he has? Sometimes it's just a complex mind working out a complex process, and sometimes it's detrimental over-analyzation. Right now is a great example, because I'm (a nobody) analyzing him who's constantly analyzing himself, occasionally analyzing others. I love analyzation because it's more precise than trial and error for learning. The more you understand things, the easier it is to deal with them.

I look at Wil and see somebody that I admire. Regardless of whether or not his books are any good (I haven't read them, in case anyone hasn't told you yet, being a writer isn't exactly the best paying gig around), and he's written several of them, and had them published. That's no small feat by any means. Writing anything is difficult, writing a significant amount of anything is even harder. Writing something as long as a book that's any good takes dedication and a fair amount of passion and talent. To write more than one? That's something special.

Not much needs to be said about his acting ability, that's been firmly established.

And then theres his poker game. I love and play it myself, but you can see an incredible difference in how I talk and write about the game, and how he does. I talk about leaving the multilevel thinking behind and trusting a marriage of gut instinct and smart play, he embraces the complexity that requires the kind of analyzation I'm trying to talk about.

The problem is that over-analyzation tends to suck the life out of you. I don't use it in poker for that very reason, I reserve it for things that matter the most like finding out who I am and why the big things in life are the way they are, and just let things be everywhere else. Sometimes a spade is just a spade, you know?

When I read Wil's weblog posts, I see someone constantly analyzing everything, and I wonder if sometimes that isn't causing more angst than it need be. Sometimes you get your ass whipped because the other guy was delt better cards than you, and you just gotta beat your first on the table, scream an expletive (or five) at the world and go eat some tums.

Will Wheaton is a psych class because listening to him (sometimes) is enough introspective to drive you crazy (at least in this post.)

Or maybe I'm the one over-analyzing...Only Mal knows for sure.