"Mistakes" similar to the pleasure paradox

[Alfred001]

This is sort of vague, but what I'm looking for is examples of types of "cognitive behavior" where people are trying to accomplish something in a way that, on the face of it, appears to have some logic to it and make sense, but in practice is not the correct way to "cognitively behave."

 

I know that sounds vague, but a perfect example of it is the pleasure paradox. This is a well known one that many people have commented on. The pleasure paradox is, of course, the idea that if you want to be happy (or have pleasure) you should do things that give you pleasure or you should aim to do things that are fun or that should make you happy, so this makes sense on a certain level, but of course, as many people throughout history, from John Stuart Mill to John Lennon, have commented on, it don't actually work, rather you are happy when you are not trying to be but are looking to do something not for the purpose of wanting to be happy, but for some other purpose and then in the process you somehow become happy. But if you're trying to be happy or get pleasure directly that is somehow not the right thing and it won't work.

 

So I'm looking for other examples like this. Where people are doing something (such as in this example trying to be happy) because it seems to make sense in a certain way, but in actuality it is the wrong thing to do.

 

Another example is what typically happens with amateur actors, the first mistake people make when they are asked to act, if they are not trained actors who've had some experience and had time to think about this and notice this, is that they'll read the scene, grasp what tehy are supposed to convey and then they'll DO stuff, they'll show it and that's not what you're supposed to do, you end up doing too much, you're supposed to basically, in a sense, do nothing, most of it the audience will read into your face from the context, but people aren't aware that if they are DOING something that they are doing too much and they aren't aware how it looks from the outside.

 

It can be in any area or regarding anything. It can be something that is well established and has been commented on by scholars, scientists, writers, whatever, or just something you've noticed from personal experience.

Edited August 3, 2014 by Alfred001