ROFLMAO
"...in the mood for some Nietzsche, with NPR on the radio."
But surely a little Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on the weekends is ok? I mean c'mon, it's mostly humor, the thinking content is really low.
I like what bballdad said about thinking how it impacts others. My first thought is never of how someone else may feel. I've had some real groudshaking moments from simply putting myself in someone else's shoes and reimagining things from thier point of view.
I had the same confusion as the OP, it seemed to me that AA people demonized intellectual types, and I felt very frustrated as all the things I did to make the constant thinking stop so I could fit in with people who don't like thinkers were the things that got me there in the first place.
All I can say is that thinking can't be made good or bad any more than you can say the internet is good or bad. I love the part in the BB where he says he quit the debate society. When I stopped analyzing just to poke holes in things I became a much happier person.