I like this post. I feel identified.

I would add that in my case, sometimes I feel pain, and I do not know what information I can get from it.

For instance, when someone criticizes one of my projects, I have pain and also information to improve.

Unfortunately, some of my projects do not have any feedback, just indifference. Like when I have no comment in HN. I have pain and no information. I do not know what to learn from it.

Perhaps, in those cases, the information is that I have to keep on building, and keep on trying.

> Pain is information, and information is painful.

Lots of folks seem to hold the opinion that learning anything is going to hurt.

I note these folks are often older; having been through some public education experience.

Kids don't have that attitude before school.

"Hurt" is not quite the right word. "Hurt" seems related to "suffering" which the essay is attempting to separate from "pain".

New information is going to reconfigure your thinking to some degree. Like scarring your muscles through exercise you can get used to the feeling of your thoughts being reconfigured.

If you watch young children learn anything, you will see that process of reconfiguration happen before your eyes. The pain involved in that experience may not be particularly hurtful (though sometimes it is).

Yes, sometimes you can have some degree of pain, but also learn and have fun. In sports for instance this is very frequent.