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Hard And Easy Is A Matter Of Perspective

HardWorker November 12, 2021 at 23:27 1700 views 7 comments
Whether or not something is hard or easy is a matter of perspective and the main factor if not the only factor would be on whose doing it. For instance, what's harder calculus or basic addition? When looked at by themselves with no other factors its obvious that calculus is much harder than basic addition but when you take into perspective who would be learning calculus vs who would be learning addition the answer is not so simple.

I was first learning to add when I was in nursery school so you could say that somebody learning addition would be in nursery school or kindergarten. Now, as for who would be learning calculus, a student at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) would be somebody who would be learning calculus. So now the question is what is harder, for somebody in nursery school to learn how to add or somebody at MIT who is much more experienced with academics and in particular much more experienced with math to learn calculus? Taking that into consideration an accurate answer becomes much more complicated.

Comments (7)

Philosophim November 12, 2021 at 23:35 #619766
No hard disagreement here. I think this is easy to understand.
Agent Smith December 09, 2021 at 14:43 #629503
Indeed it is.

Think in terms of love, honor, respect, friendship, to name but a few of the ideas that are floating around (still) and the world becomes an unsolvable puzzle.

Shift your perspective, look at things from a dollar angle and everything becomes rather simple, in fact very simple.

The point I'm trying to make, despite the cynical stance I've adopted, is not that humans are bad per se but that changing one's point of view may simplify matters to a point where one might ask yourself, reproachfully, "who would've thought it was that simple?!"
T Clark December 09, 2021 at 20:22 #629553
Quoting HardWorker
Whether or not something is hard or easy is a matter of perspective and the main factor if not the only factor would be on whose doing it.


You're in good company. This is from "The Tao Te Ching," Verse 2, Stephen Mitchell's translation.

[i]When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.[/i]
Tom Storm December 09, 2021 at 21:41 #629571
jgill December 10, 2021 at 05:20 #629671
"Hard and easy is a matter of perspective" about says it all.
sime December 10, 2021 at 08:56 #629689
I dislike the word "hard", for it seems to encourage an inaccurate association of pain and struggle with respect to the "hard" objective concerned, leading to procrastination.

I think the concept of difficulty should be eliminated for the concept of expense, which is more objective and might be perceived as being a less painful concept.
Agent Smith December 11, 2021 at 05:57 #630065
To those who agree with the OP, me inclusive, try this on for size: The HARD problem of consciousness