The harder-better fallacy

This post from Kate Manne (author of the very excellent Down Girl) is about weight loss but also includes her description of what she calls the “harder-better fallacy,” defined as the belief that “that which is the most difficult to achieve is deemed the most worthy, regardless of its actual desirability or value.” I find this to be a very applicable framework to a lot of reflexive habits, among them the persistent idea that the more difficult or challenging career path must necessarily be the better one. Manne wisely asks, “is there a practice in your own life where you think you might be buying into the harder-better fallacy? What do you gain by so doing? And what might you stop losing if you were to give it up?”