Learning a new language isn’t hard because it’s time-consuming. It’s time-consuming because it’s hard. The hard part is memorizing all of the details. Sure that takes lots of time, but working harder (more intensively) will reduce that time. It’s hard to be dedicated enough to spend the time as well.
Getting a royal flush in poker isn’t something I’d call hard. It’s rare. But hard? A complete beginner can do that in their first try. It’s just luck. But if you play a long time, it’ll eventually happen.
Painful or unpleasant things are hard, because they require you to push through. Time-consuming activities are hard because they require dedication. Learning math is hard because you’re outside your comfort zone.
Things are often called hard because achieving them is not common. Often because many people don’t want to spend the effort needed. This is amplified by things like genetic and environmental differences. People rarely call riding a bike hard, but sure it required dedication and unpleasant experiences to learn. But surely if you’re blind then it’s way harder.
And lastly, things are hard because there’s competition. Playing chess isn’t hard, but getting a grandmaster title is. Getting rich is hard because of that, as well.
To extend this angle—I notice that we’re more likely to call things “difficult” when our expectations of whether we “should” be able to do it are mismatched from our observations of whether we are “able to” do it.
The “oh, that’s hard actually” observation shows up reliably for me when I underestimated the effort, pain, or luck required to attain a certain outcome.
Learning a new language isn’t hard because it’s time-consuming. It’s time-consuming because it’s hard. The hard part is memorizing all of the details. Sure that takes lots of time, but working harder (more intensively) will reduce that time. It’s hard to be dedicated enough to spend the time as well.
Getting a royal flush in poker isn’t something I’d call hard. It’s rare. But hard? A complete beginner can do that in their first try. It’s just luck. But if you play a long time, it’ll eventually happen.
Painful or unpleasant things are hard, because they require you to push through. Time-consuming activities are hard because they require dedication. Learning math is hard because you’re outside your comfort zone.
Things are often called hard because achieving them is not common. Often because many people don’t want to spend the effort needed. This is amplified by things like genetic and environmental differences. People rarely call riding a bike hard, but sure it required dedication and unpleasant experiences to learn. But surely if you’re blind then it’s way harder.
And lastly, things are hard because there’s competition. Playing chess isn’t hard, but getting a grandmaster title is. Getting rich is hard because of that, as well.
To extend this angle—I notice that we’re more likely to call things “difficult” when our expectations of whether we “should” be able to do it are mismatched from our observations of whether we are “able to” do it.
The “oh, that’s hard actually” observation shows up reliably for me when I underestimated the effort, pain, or luck required to attain a certain outcome.