3.
The idea of desirable difficulty suggests
that not all difficulties are negative.
Being a poor reader is a real obstacle,
unless you are David Boies and that
obstacle turns you into an extraordinary
listener, or unless you are Gary Cohn
and that obstacle gives you the courage
to take chances you would never
otherwise have taken.
MacCurdy’s theory of morale is a
second, broader perspective on this
same idea. The reason Winston
Churchill and the English military brass
were so apprehensive about the German
attacks on London was that they assumed