Ben Bergeron, paraphrased (https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/chasing-excellence/id1170629044?i=1000561781908):
The function of the mind is twofold - to focus, and to solve problems. When it finds neither to do, it drops a level, to chatter. It is actively seeking a problem to solve, a matter to focus on. It will literally create problems because it is not being put to use for a higher purpose.
My application is that to free ourselves from disillusionment and anxiety, this chatter and spiraling, from make-work projects and the addiction to try to control or criticize other people, we must discipline ourselves to pursue a focus, something lasting, and to find a worthy problem, then work to solve it.
This is why first-world governments, banks, school administrations, town permitting departments and membership boards for fancy golf courses take months to come to simple decisions and bog us all down with rules, paperwork, and laws about how we must speak and think, and how thick our drywall must be..
There simply aren’t any real problems, but from a physical level all the way up to a relational and spiritual level, all of our brains, including theirs, need stimulation and purpose. In the absence of these things, we descend into pursuit of their counterfeits: control and criticism.