Of passion and suffering

I wanted to lay two posts beside one another for you, two posts written by two James.  The first is by James Shelley, and is about the real meaning of passion, as rooted in suffering:

The word passion comes from the Latin passio, which implied suffering and the endurance of hardship. To be passionate, truly passionate, demands a willingness to suffer for the object or cause of your passion. It is unswerving persistence and commitment in the face of pain and loss. Rooted in either cocksure confidence or calculated commitment, a passionate person earns their title because of their unflinching persistence in the face of opposition. There can be no passion without the experience of personal loss: until one suffers, one’s passion is not exposed.
The second is by James Johnson, and is about learning how to program:
The most important lesson I have learned so far, is that learning to program requires suffering. There will be impossible problems that would take an experienced developer 30 seconds that might take you 3 weeks. Probably more than one. Learning to struggle though is what has helped me think and reason through issues. Over time I  have learned better ways to problem solve.
I enjoyed encountering this idea twice within a few minutes in such seemingly different posts.  This idea is central to what I do and who I am, and I connected with both instantly.

One of the things I want to do better in my teaching is to more fully connect these ideas for my students also.  I need to move away from telling people that I teach programming, and toward an admission that I teach passion and suffering.

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