Hello,
I don’t have very much experience but I’ve noticed that for me mediation tends to stop – or slow down -- the mind from running away to sudden feelings, impulses, thoughts, etc. I’m wondering if any of you have had experience with the effect of meditation on something like problem solving. Before starting mediation it would bother me a lot if I didn’t understand something. With meditation, it doesn’t bother me that much – at least not enough to keep popping in my head and taking me away from other things. However, I wonder if this could be a detriment when working on complex problems or studying for exams. Would the otherwise obsessive behavior be a benefit for this narrow purpose?
Hi db5
I'm not sure if I understand the nuance of your question. You say that meditation has helped you to stabilize your attention. You also say that it has helped you to reduce frustration, for example when you have have a problem or issue that you don't understand. The result is that such a problem or issue would not keep popping into your head at unexpected moments anymore. Sounds great!

But somehow it feels as if you interpret equanimity or "not giving attention to something that pops into your mind" as indifference or "not caring", which would then be detrimental. The other extreme, obsessiveness, which you mean in a sense of caring excessively, would in your opinion lead to more effort and be more beneficial.
Does this mean that you experience for yourself that you lack the discipline to balance the loss of drive that obsessing offered you?
I agree that obsessiveness has in some cases given people the drive to do great things. So in retrospect and for humanity as a whole, there has been benefit to obsessiveness. But is obsessing the wise thing to do? I mean, would you like to develop obsesiveness if you could develop discipline and determination instead?

As for indifference, equanimity is nothing like it. It's quite the opposite actually, but there is a place and time for everything. Thinking about a complex problem is something I don't want to be doing in bed just before sleep, during a conversation with a friend, during sex, while watching a movie, etc. I prefer watching a movie while I'm watching a movie. And I prefer thinking about a complex problem when it's the appropriate time, which could also be during a walk, while in traffic, etc.
As said above, a mind that is focussed is more able to tackle complex problems. Open and relaxed awaress is more conducive of creativity.
Preparing for an exam is in my experience much more efficient if you're relaxed and focused instead of hearing this inner voice obsessionally urging you to work because oherwise bad things will happen to you. Not to mention the effect obsessing might have on the quality of sleep, efficiency of memory storage and retrieval, etc.