"pick the solution that seems harder" genuinely seems dumb. But there are some fears that you need to push through. For me, the things I'm most afraid of are ki

"pick the solution that seems harder" genuinely seems dumb. But there are some fears that you need to push through. For me, the things I'm most afraid of are killing cyclists and writing. Avoiding the first one is mostly a matter of which city you live in. Back when I lived in Austin, beyond buying a wide-angle mirror and being attentive, I just had to accept that if I wanted to get groceries, I would need to risk killing a cyclist. Now that I live in London and can take public transport everywhere, I can totally avoid that fear. With writing, I often run into situations where to accomplish some goal I really care about (getting a new job, applying to mentor kids, etc.) I need to write as a means to that end. There are things I can do to make that easier, but fundamentally I do need to bear the discomfort. I think this is what the articles are actually getting at: when you have some irreducable and unavoidable barrier in front of you, then you need to be able to say to yourself "This is scary; This is uncomfortable; But this is necessary and worth it and I am stronger than I think."