October 16, 2026: Chasing Challenges
“What is attended with difficulty in the seeking gives greater pleasure in the finding”–Augustine
The age of AI presents us with an interesting conundrum. If knowledge is increasingly easy to find, then what happens to the pleasure of learning?
I don’t know about you, but I find that much of the pleasure is in the chase. Imagine if there were no challenge in completing a crossword puzzle, if you won every game against your friends with ease, or if there were no hardship in summitting Mount Everest.
Why do it?
Challenges fill our lives with purpose. In fact, I suspect that even Heaven will be filled with challenges—with discovery, learning, and the satisfaction of mastering something new—and therefore with continued purpose.
Midterm grades have been submitted, and we are now moving into the second half of the semester. This is a good time to pause and reflect. Are there things you could improve—growth areas? Are there areas in which you are wildly succeeding—time for celebration? Are there topics that you simply aren’t getting yet?
Here are a few thoughts as you move forward:
Keep persevering.Employers and admissions committees want people who can succeed even amid adversity. Yes, we all get discouraged. But remember that thousands of students have sat in these very seats before you, faced the same challenges, and made it through. You can, too.
Seek advice.There is no reason you need to figure everything out on your own. Your professors really do want to talk with you and help you however they can. Ask questions. Come to office hours. Tell someone when you’re struggling. Seeking help is not a sign of weakness; it is part of learning.
At some point, however, you just have to buckle down.We often hear the advice, “Work smart, not hard.” I’d suggest work smart AND hard. Learning takes effort—and often a lot of it. There are no shortcuts to developing genuine understanding and skill.
Think about music. Virtuosity can take a lifetime to develop. Think about athletics. Mastery comes through years of practice. Think about writing. A good book may take years to produce, with countless pages written and discarded along the way. The stories of great musicians, athletes, and writers are, almost without exception, stories of persistence and practice.
AI can produce a crossword puzzle, win a game, generate an image, or write a paragraph almost instantly. But if we remove the struggle entirely, we may also remove something important: learning, and perhaps pleasure.
So don’t be too eager to eliminate every challenge. Some things worth having are worth working for.
This afternoon was the first research meeting for our Biology Undergraduate Research Program, when 23 students who are involved in research projects in biology gathered to share and learn and encourage. Two students, Abigail and Megan, shared their undergraduate research. Great work, you guys! We learned that there are many steps toward an answer, many that don’t work out. Sometimes our controls don’t even work out! But there is value in perseverance, and eventually we arrive at an answer. And if we don’t find an answer, we can at least make an impressive presentation!
