Lean into the pain

Pain is like a compiler warning. 99% of the time it's telling you that something is wrong, and so you should only ignore it if you're 100% positive that you know what you're doing and the warning is a false positive.<p>The Jane and Joan example is a case in point. Rather than "merging often" to take small pain now rather than big pain later, they should be taking a step back and looking at WHY there's pain. They could, for example, choose to stagger their work (work on stories involving unrelated files as much as possible) such that they're not stepping all over each other all the time. Are nicer messages REALLY that important RIGHT NOW? Couldn't Jane just work on the purchase system instead on this sprint and do messages later and save everyone a lot of pain?<p>Pain exists for a reason. Don't ignore it. And for the love of Pete, don't just blindly push through it!

I completely disagree.<p>First of all, the whole kind of "no pain no gain" philosophy is particularly American. In a lot of other countries they find this mindset bizarre. If you go to the gym and it hurts, you should STOP. Maybe it will take you twice as long to build up muscles as the guy who "leans into the pain", but you're also not going to tear your hamstring, or slip a disc, or whatever, and you'll still achieve your goals.<p>As for "psychological pain", again, don't "lean into it". Figure out where it's coming from, and <i>fix whatever is causing the pain</i>. In the example of merges, use continuous integration, or merge daily. Which is what the author says... but that's not leaning into the pain, that's intelligently avoiding it!<p>And if selling is a painful process for you, then don't "lean into the pain" and keep doing it painfully -- find someone to teach you how to do it better, so it stops being painful.

Not all pain is gain. A little story:<p><i>I once knew a guy who trained martial arts, a lot. He had a proverb he was fond of. He used to say "Pain is just the sensation of weakness leaving the body". And so he kept on training, even when it really hurt, because he knew it was just weakness leaving his body. And it worked; over a period of twenty years, nearly all the weakness left his body. When I last saw him, there wasn't enough weakness left in his knees or ankles for them to even bend. He walks with a stick, of course. Turns out that you probably ought to leave a bit of weakness in there.</i>

I'm not familiar with this blog, but the post preceding this one is pure gold. I don't often read these "blog psychology" posts, but this guy is an excellent writer and addresses some important topics in personal growth.<p><a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/semmelweis" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/semmelweis</a><p>Similar theme as the "Lean into the Pain" post above, but it hits harder, and is potentially more useful. The post's tl;dr? Never stop looking in the mirror and facing criticism with honesty. But take the time to read it if the topic is of interest.

Poor physiological analogy is poor.<p>Having some familiarity with both technology and physical training, there are causes of pain in both which have various causes and implications.<p>In exercise, there are various types of pain which may indicate little more than a solid effort, while others indicate acute tissue damage or injury which can lead to chronic or debilitating issues if left untreated. There's a huge difference between the strain of exertion in lifting, lactic buildup from a sprint, weightlifting burn, blisters or other chafing injuries, DOMS, the pain of tendinitis, a cramp, and plantar fascitis.<p>Some of these are momentary and transient, disappearing in a few minutes. Others are the result of tissue damage but will heal, if properly treated, in a few days. Others indicate either damaged or traumatized tissues which heal very slowly if at all, and can be debilitating if left untreated. <i>None are of themselves an indication of progress or "goodness" of a workout: you measure progress in training by your success in acheiving goals, not through pain.</i><p>Sure, DOMS after a hard lifting session, or sore muscles after a long run or ride can feel "good" in a sense, but it's not a sign of progress of itself.<p>It's a similar situation in technology.<p>There are things I encounter in technology that are similar: practices which are tedious, or vaguely challenging, or require thought, vs. others which are automatic. But there are also patterns and trends which just feel obviously <i>wrong</i>, and which practice has shown are really bad ideas. The current trend is to call these "patterns" and "anti-patterns".<p>Again, the important things aren't the presence or absence of pain, or even its intensity. If you want to gauge your progress toward goals, then <i>measure</i> your progress toward goals, not how much pain you're experiencing en route.

"Yes it’s painful, but the trick is to make that mental shift. To realize that the pain isn’t something awful to be postponed and avoided, but a signal that you’re getting stronger — something to savor and enjoy. It’s what makes you better."<p>In my experience with startups and cycling there are different levels of pain. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_Sting_Pain_Index" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_Sting_Pain_Index</a>)<p>Once you realize what level you are experiencing you can get to know your body and learn to push it through the pain.<p>This summer I did a 150 bike ride that ended on a climb, it was intensely painful mentally and physically, but I was able to push my pain because I knew from previous rides that it was a false boundary. My body still had fuel and strength to do the last 15 miles even though I was exhausted.<p>The same goes for startups, the mostly mental pain is a signal that we are pushing our limits. If we do it gently we can expand our understanding and knowledge of the subject. It is in the quitting when we hit the pain wall where we fail, push through it and the downhill on the other side will be joyous!

Another angle of human relationship to pain:<p>Agatha Christie wrote a book “Elephants can remember”, a detective story structured around people recollecting events that happened long ago. Years later, a group of researchers discovered that she had the starting signs of Alzheimer during this period. They did this by analyzing the range of vocabulary in her writings and there was a significant drop in the size of her vocabulary (15-30%) and an increase in the usage of indefinite words like something/anything. We can never be sure if she was aware of her slow deterioration, but something has pushed her to dwell on the subject of memory long enough. Even before we can consciously articulate the experiences of our brain, clues to our deep inner experience is scattered all over in the everyday choices we make, even in the choice of our thoughts. Look at the books that you bought, and the books that you ended up actually reading. You can apply the same to every bit of choice you make in your life, and you can put together a wonderfully detailed picture of your deep inner experience.<p>One particular corollary to this interrelation of pain and choice is our relationship to deficiency. Chuck Close drew pictures of human faces. His portraits are highly sought by museums and collectors. Chuck Close has a neurological condition known as face blindness. He cannot recognize human faces.<p>Rivers flow. The fertility from the resulting flow leads to formation of entire cities along its edges. The overwhelming focus that pain brings to particular deficiencies we face makes them the central structure around which we form our characters. I would not exactly say this is a bad thing necessarily, but it is a narrative that will help you explore yourself. It will take you to the far corners or more likely to the very foundation of your personality.<p>more here: <a href="http://urbanravine.com/discovering-you/" rel="nofollow">http://urbanravine.com/discovering-you/</a>

Shouldn't the agile motto be, "If it hurts, find a better way"? The whole point is to have the agility to adjust around different circumstances. We're not bound by natural laws, and our output is more likened to art than science because of the many variations you can take. So take advantage of it!<p>This article assumes there is only one way to get something done, which smells of rigid Certified processes. And our industry has enough of a bravado culture that people put themselves through pain just so they can show off their scars. Why not promote pain-avoidance thinking instead? We should all be thinking, "there's got to be a better way", because most times, there is.<p>Knees hurt when you exercise? Try swimming. Merging is a painful process? Try scheduling the work better; dividing the codebase smarter; allowing the smaller work to be sacrificed in order to get the important worked checked in; finding tools to help visualize the merge easier.

Aaron vs Aaron: <a href="http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/easywayout" rel="nofollow">http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/easywayout</a>

Of course, there's also injury, leaning into the pain so much you do damage to yourself. Or even overtraining, a system wide failure cause by leaning a little too far (this is actually fairly rare in physical training, but seems to be a good analogy for burnout).<p>I would hate to see someone fail to achieve their full potential from either avoiding what's difficult for them thereby failing to improve, or focusing a little too much on what's difficult, thereby failing to achieve their potential. I will never be a gold medal sprinter, and if I'm hoping to be, I will be sorely dissapointed with my life. Doesn't mean that if I <i>was</i> a sprinter, I shouldn't work on my weaknesses to improve my overall ability.<p>It's a good piece, but a little self-knowledge goes a long way. Perhaps he deals with that in the upcoming piece "Confronting Reality".

His premise, in my opinion, is wrong and therefor invalidates everything following it:<p><i>The problem is that the topics that are most painful also tend to be the topics that are most important for us: they’re the projects we most want to do, the relationships we care most about, the decisions that have the biggest consequences for our future, the most dangerous risks that we run.</i><p>Am I missing something, or am I just weird? This makes absolutely no sense to me. On the contrary, the projects and relationships I care most about are what bring me the most pleasure. Things that bring me the most pain are projects and relationships that I can't stand or don't want to deal with. What am I missing here?

Related, "The importance of stupidity in scientific research": <a href="http://jcs.biologists.org/content/121/11/1771.full" rel="nofollow">http://jcs.biologists.org/content/121/11/1771.full</a>

I don't buy the Agile part but I find it interesting that the part about pain and exercise has to be explained at all. I have a friend who used to talk about improving his physique. It was one of the hopes and frustrations that we shared chronically for fifteen years. Then one day I realized he hadn't said anything positive about exercise in... years! (Apparently I can be slow to recognize when an old friend changes something about him that's been the same since I met him twenty years ago.) So what's the deal, I asked him.<p>"Exercise hurts," he said. Well, yeah, I said. But that isn't really a strike against it, is it?<p>"How can you say that? Pain is unpleasant. When I exercise, it hurts, and I feel really bad." That doesn't make any sense, I said. I mean, it makes superficial sense, I said, but does it doesn't really work that way. It hurts, but it feels good. "Yeah, it does work that way. I've tried it plenty of times. It hurts, it makes me feel bad, it makes me miserable. It always made me miserable, but I figured I'd be better off if I could do it and live with being miserable. Now I'm married and [wife's name] doesn't care that I'm fat, so I'm done with it." (The part about his wife is true. They're both obese and revel in eating huge amounts of food together. Sometimes she tags him on Facebook when posting about "fourth meal," which means hitting a drive-through at midnight for burgers or fajitas.)<p>This is something you've always wanted to do, I said. You bought the P90x DVDs and yoga mat. It was just a few years ago when you bought the Chuck Norris Total Gym. You were already married then.<p>"Old habits die hard. I wanted to be tough enough to take the pain. Wishful thinking. Now I know it's okay that I'm not a badass." Badass? You think I'm a badass? You think everyone at the gym is a badass? "More of a badass than me."<p>That was it. I've brought up exercise a few times since then, and his story hasn't changed. I get that he legitimately finds exercise to be extremely unpleasant. I guess I get that my experience of exercise requires as much explanation as his. What I don't get is how we arrived at opposite ends of the spectrum and why his experiences with physical exertion didn't push him over to my way of experiencing it. Did he not work out hard enough? Did he not work out long enough? What was the missing ingredient that would have made him experience exercise the same way I do?

It is important to remember that physical pain is divided into two categories by athletes. "Pain" that indicates a broken bone or injury, which is typically a lot sharper pain and "Pain" that indicates growth, which is being sore after a workout.<p>Taking a shades of gray approach such as the above is beneficial in most situations. "Pain" is not black and white all the time.<p>tldr; Learn what kinds of pain you should be pushing through.

In my opinion, there can be another argument: Preplanning carefully and doing things when they are less painful but in advance, we can avoid huge last minute pain and thus less prone to procrastinate. But if you fail to preplan and execute, you have to go thru huge amount of pain to achieve success.

It's a good sentiment but the exercise analogy isn't the best... there is PLENTY of pain in exercise that you should not "lean into" because you will make injuries worse.<p>Not to mention exercise is mostly about routine and habit -- you'll make plenty of progress of progress over time.

"impactful" is not a word. please stop using it. please. I beg.