Stop Ignoring Hard Problems 💪
Field Notes from the Future | 008
At the beginning of the 2020s we were taken on an unplanned and involuntary journey into the future. I’ve been taking notes. Let’s get equipped.
No matter what your pursuit is, the exponentially expanding universe of online traders and peddlers are sure to have unending depths of advice for you. Endless complexity, continual shades of nuance. Course after thread after masterclass promising to unlock The Secrets of whatever you wish you could do or become. Today we have to start with the hard news, friend. You already know the single obstacle to your successful progress of creation. You are probably painfully aware of the one-to-three things preventing you from actual advancement towards your goal. The lucrative business of much of the Artistic Advice world (and many other worlds as well) is to distract you from making this progress. A person writing for their lives is already becoming an author, and unlikely to trawl the depths of Gumroad looking for inspirational paid coursework. A disciple devoted to prayer and study is unlikely to be distracted with promises of eternal advancement available for a reasonable monthly subscription. And so the endless stream of Content-About-Work proliferates. We are going to have to rebel if we want to pursue excellence. It’s time to let go of all other work except for the hardest work of all.
You’ve probably experienced this frustration if you’ve genuinely needed instruction in a non-technical path of study. Simple enough to get a step-by-step instructional video on your project of choice if that project is carpentry or gardening. (Although even here, today’s problem is beginning to take over as well). But try searching for “How to pray” and you will begin to see the struggle. Where in endless shovelblogs and listicles, many peddling bespoke methods and contradicting tips, are the crucial few nuggets of actual wisdom that you are seeking? Frequently, this is the best way to find the Hard Problem. A Hard Problem is the real work at the center of any pursuit, the actual unspoken difficulty. Always surrounded by a penumbra of chaff and distraction, Hard Problems can be stated as simple tasks that stop most aspirants dead. There are really only a few kinds of work, and everything else is management or consulting. Are you ready to tackle the real thing?
I. Discover the Hard Problem
As a Christian, the central pursuit of my life is relationship with God. All others are (ought to be) a distant runner-up. Now, you can find any number of people with opinions of various quality on what the Christian life should consist of, how best to attain those goals, which traditions will assist you and which hinder you in your walk of faith. But all of these are secondary issues to the Hard Problem of Christianity, which is knowing God. If you are not making progress on this Hard Problem, then you may be doing lots of important work, but you are not making progress as a Christian. How do you know God? Most Hard Problems can be boiled down to a few simple actions. Let’s start here: Speak with Him, and read His book. Those are the everyday repetitions that I must complete to hope to one day achieve excellence in relationship with God.
“But there are so many nuances that you’re leaving out!” Of course there are. To be any use to you at all, advice has to be able to be reduced to the level of the Hard Problem. Everything else is going to be discovered by the learner on their own, through repetition, innate observation and experience. And until you are pursuing the Hard Problem with all your might, you don’t actually have the understanding to make any use of those nuances, anyway. There are many other good, even necessary things that a Christian should do. But they all flow naturally from the Hard Problem of knowing God. The Hard Problem is what led you to the pursuit in the first place. It is the archetypal statement of your need. You were created to experience the love and fellowship of other beings, and so the ur-problem of marriage is loving your spouse well. You were designed as a replicating and illuminating being, and so the ur-problem of art is producing work that mimics greatness. You were created to know God, and so the hardest problem you will ever face is knowing Him. Every other pursuit that substitutes for the Hard Problem is doomed to eventual failure because it prostitutes the intense work reserved for life’s most vital passions and uses it for the spiritual equivalent of shuffling papers on your desk.
II. Reject Tempting Complications
The last step wasn’t all that difficult, because most of us already know the Hard Problem we are currently ignoring. It’s the thing we procrastinate on at work so that we can clean out the desk and doublecheck the inbox. So now that you’ve identified the Thing you need to be doing in order to move forward, there is going to come a crucial moment of peril. You are going to be bombarded with thoughts and opportunities for distraction. You’ll become convinced that the Thing would be even better if you added this efficiency-boosting widget or that ambient improvement. You’ll become an expert in tools, communities, brands and news all concerning the Thing. You’ll do anything, everything but the Thing. Because Hard Problems are terrifying. Turns out that knowing God is hard work, humbling, contrary to my intrinsic human desires requires endurance into the bargain. Much easier to become an enjoyer of theological nuance or a discusser of ecclesiastic history than a disciple. Beware the complicated web that seeks to trap you in secondary concerns and tertiary optimizations. Most people leave the narrow path that leads to life.
III. Stop Preparing
Subtly different from the profusion of complicating voices is the inner voice that insists that you should start, definitely, but just tomorrow. When the last few touches are finished on the outline, when things have settled down at home and you can really focus. This is of course the ultimate self-told lie. All Hard Problems essentially boil down to the crucial question “Am I really doing the real work?” Since the only way forward is by doing the actual hard work, and because you innately know this, you are tempted to delay and defer the pain of struggling and failing and repeating the battle. Nobody has ever failed to organize their desk, but nobody has created anything memorable doing it either. Few can be said to truly fail at the pursuit of the seminarian, but failed disciples litter the path. You will know when you have succeeded or failed at the Hard Problem, and that is why it is hard. It is a lovingly brutal tutor that exposes your true nature and refuses to cruelly lie about your actual abilities. Discard all measurements of your pursuit until you find one that allows you to work daily and attainably, that demands personal humility, and that frightens you a little bit. Then do it in the morning.
I’m not telling you anything you haven’t already suspected. I hope you’ll enjoy the freedom that comes from letting go of the siren call of spectators and poseurs masquerading as coaches and experts. Listen to the proven guides, gnarled hands and quiet spirits worn down by obstinate commitment to the One Thing. If you want to know God, you’re best earthly bet is someone who is holy, not someone with a massive social following and a good marketing department. Being able to do any kind of Hard Work is incredibly powerful, but not always lucrative or respected. It is often surprisingly rare. The obsession with flash and polish is killing our creativity and growth. If you would rather sit in coffeeshops and consume Writing Advice than grind out drafts, you are not yet an author. If you would rather look and feel holy than know God, you have not yet begun to realize the Hard Problem.
And no, you’re never going to be able to skip this step. Every master is really just a dedicated ignorer of anything that isn’t the Hard Problem. Everything else tends to fall into place if you can sort out the vital core of your craft. Reduce it to the fewest and simplest tools, the barest of essential advising voices. Familiarize yourself with quality. Hard problems take hard work, and that’s because they stand in the way of true beauty. But first, you have to humbly accept that maybe there isn’t some Secret to it, after all.
I’ll see you in the Future.
The fact that you doubt the simplicity of the task is why you are failing. ~ Runehammer
Don’t prepare. Begin. ~ Steven Pressfield, Do the Work
But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. ~ 2 Chronicles 15:7
Two points that really resonated with me here:
“Much easier to become an enjoyer of theological nuance or a discusser of ecclesiastic history than a disciple.”
And
“The obsession with flash and polish is killing our creativity and growth. If you would rather sit in coffeeshops and consume Writing Advice than grind out drafts, you are not yet an author.”
Both convicting and inspiring. Thanks!
You describe it so well.
Yes, begin and push through the thicket with determination. What’s helping me is to allow myself to not demand perfection, but instead to begin. At least that.