“Tools that make hard things easy can make us less likely to tolerate things that are hard.”

-Clive Thompson, in his Wired article on automotive automation

Personally, I long for a future with self-driving cars, but Thompson makes some great points in his article.  More important is the above sentence, which sums up a paradoxical challenge of modern life. In a society where we’re much less worried about subsistence and survival, concerns of comfort rise to the top. Unfortunately, in the quest for ease and luxury, trying to find ways to do less can have an overall negative effect on our ability to do things that are still difficult.

Striving, working hard, taking the road less traveled — whichever turn of phrase you prefer, it seems there is still a lot of value in embracing the hard things of life. “The hard” is often more satisfying, growth-inducing, and life-changing.