I haven't got a big thesis here but I'm skeptical of the notion that study can be hard. Bringing your mind gently back to a topic again and again (until though

I haven't got a big thesis here but I'm skeptical of the notion that study can be hard. Bringing your mind gently back to a topic again and again (until thoughts arise which make it clear, or giving up if they don't) isn't intrinsically hard in the sense that shovelling coal is hard. What seems to make it hard is the belief that learning hurts, and fearing about one's future, which comes largely from the legacy of being continually graded and assessed at school (as if knowledge could ever be measured!) Fearing that study is hard seems to make it hard. And this makes it easy to be distracted by other interesting ideas upon which one isn't being assessed. Also drinking, partying, and other typical student pursuits (which are in fact quite straightforwardly boring if you try to take them seriously). The intellectuals and scientists that came up with the knowledge in the first place didn't find it hard. They were essentially determined to have a good time. Fortunately nobody was there at the time to check whether they were doing it right.