

Ask HN: Why is difficulty for difficulty's sake highly valued? - amichail

It's most obvious in theoretical fields such as mathematics where completely useless conjectures/theorems are highly valued because they are/were difficult to settle/prove.<p>It's also something that you see in the software industry.  People brag about how difficult something was to accomplish in a technical sense.  Are they trying to scare away potential competitors?  Brag about their IQ?<p>Perhaps this all stems from an education system that glorifies difficulty above all else.<p>Just because something is difficult doesn't make it interesting.  Conversely, just because something is easy doesn't make it uninteresting.<p>I find this all very strange.
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menloparkbum
_Perhaps this all stems from an education system that glorifies difficulty
above all else._

Weren't you also the guy who was talking about being ostracized by your
teachers and peers because you weren't math olympiad material? From your
comments you have had the most atypical educational experience I've ever heard
described.

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quoderat
Many -- if not most -- human intellectual pursuits are a form of stotting.
(See: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotting> )

In fact, competing with other minds, not meeting direct challenges in the
environment, is probably what led to most of humanity's advanced intellectual
development.

Sure, it can be couched in the language of the "thrill of discovery" and all
that, and some of that is true -- but that doesn't explain its genesis, and
doesn't explain what you're talking about, as all too often, the difficult
solution is taken over the easy solution merely because it is difficult.

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bmm6o
Can't it be because they are proud of accomplishing something difficult? The
harder the challenge, the greater the pride.

Also, you're looking for a specific answer to a very abstract question. You
can't ask why something is highly-valued without specifying by whom. Is there
a particular instance of this behavior that you are looking to explain?
Otherwise it could just be confirmation bias.

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lionhearted
I don't think it's normal in mainstream education - mainstream education seems
to reward obedience and fact-memorization above all else. Critical thinking
and creativity tend to be tolerated at best, punished at worst.

But difficult for difficult? Maybe it's because challenges can stimulate you
to find new ways there. I like playing the highest difficult levels of
Civilization IV - itself one of the hardest and most complex games ever made -
because it forces you to keep re-examining and questioning your assumptions.
Strategies that work on the lower levels get you stomped on upper levels, so
you're forced to adjust to a whole new style of play and find solutions you
never even thought about. Good for the mind.

