: How can I get rid of the "things" in the following passage? “Good. You've done your homework.” The girl turned around and started inspecting a decaying tree, as if checking its health.

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Firstly, I'd say it really depends on your character. It could very much fight with the character. Otherwise, you could increase the complexity potentially with something like
"Funny, isn't it? How nature can make us act in ways that don't benefit our survival? Sometimes we just waste our time and energy..."

Remember, all too often characters just write themselves. They might say Things a hundred and two times, and drive you crazy, but whenever you try to put different words in that character's mouth, they just spit them out. - Kidding.

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The only one which actually seems repetitious is the third one; the first one is perfect and the second is a deliberate sentence-fragment echo. I literally didn't notice them.

for the third:

Or even worse, we end up doing something that may hurt us — or those around us.

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