Learning from Pain

Gave me some stuff to think about, thank you!

It almost reads like a stoic philosophy of development, which is a pretty fresh idea in contrast to the steady stream of “hey look at this new super convenient tool/framework/lang we created!” posts.

It might be easy to confuse with the purist or masochistic view of “make it harder because it builds character”, but I think there’s a lot of value in being reminded that it’s important to step back and look at the big picture of what problems you’re trying to solve—before solving them!

Pain is a signal that something is wrong and needs attention. Yet we also choose pain because it can feel pleasurable.

e.g. eating chilli causes pain, which is interpreted as pleasure

e.g. leaving everything to the last minute, which is interpretted as a 'buzz'

Even in such situations the pain remains a sign that something is wrong, that the personality may be out of balance. Why hurt yourself or make things harder? Like the dictator who deliberately creates hardship in order to remain in power...