Widespread resistance
Steve Pressfield defines Resistance as the inertia, stories and excuses we manage to create to avoid powerful or creative work.
Writer’s block, procrastination, overconfidence, or a belief in un-delivered talent are all symptoms of resistance.
Knowing that it has a name helps us dance with it. We can’t make it go away (the more important and useful our contribution, the more likely it is to appear) but we can learn to use it as a compass.
In the last few years, though, resistance has been spreading as a cultural norm. Ennui, eco-anxiety, marketplace exhaustion and justified frustration with systems of caste and injustice have all amplified resistance. It feels like culture and tech have both hit a cul de sac, and it’s easier to simply chill out.
This serves the defenders of the status quo, but distracts us from the journey.
If history is any guide, this is precisely the moment we need the urge to create. To imagine something better, to ship work that matters, and to lead.