I read a fascinating paper by Shigehisa Kuriyama titled “‘‘No Pain, No Gain’’
and the History of Presence.” In the paper, he talks about how “No Pain, No Gain” seems to stay in circulation, despite a horde of doctors speaking against it. He argues that the pain of exercise is seen as a good kind of pain, one that is linked to the muscular consciousness developed by the ancient Greeks (a fascinating topic I’m writing about currently).
In simple terms, a piece of bad advice is able to survive despite opposition because the culture values a certain feeling. This got me thinking about the feelings that our culture tells us it’s okay to feel and how that affects our ability to change things.
Take for example the idea that you need to follow your passion in your job. Passion is a culturally privileged feeling. It’s the pinnacle of a broadly consumed romantic love. It’s the sign that you’ve found your fit.
Following your passion isn’t great advice for your career (also probably not for your long-term relationships) as countless people have argued, for example Cal Newport’s So Good They Can’t Ignore You. But like “No Pain, No Gain,” the passion advice still hangs around.
There are a lot of these feelings that we as a culture implicitly endorse and which seem impossible to budge. A big part of why they’re so hard to budge is that we tend to argue about them on the level of facts, not as feelings.
You can share all the facts you want about how “No Pain, No Gain” doesn’t work but until people can unpack how they’re locked into a feeling there’s unlikely to be a change.
In some respects, that makes the job of the change maker harder. Most people (myself included) have a hard time unpacking their feelings, let alone unpacking their feelings within the context of generational and cultural narratives.
On the other hand, it does open up the door for other kinds of change. Opening discussions of the feelings that should be privileged. Not passion but craftsmanship. Not pain but discomfort. Hopefully, with other approaches we can actually shift the needle.
