Why friction is necessary for growth

Your idea of necessary friction is universal. Friction is not a bug in biology; it’s the feature that keeps systems alive and adaptive. Bones mineralize under load and thin without it; muscles hypertrophy with strain and atrophy in a cast; immune networks calibrate by meeting antigens, not by hiding from them. At the cellular level, survival isn’t guaranteed - deprived of trophic signals or mechanical challenge, many cells default to apoptosis, a programmed self-destruct that enforces “use it or lose it.” In other words, life is written to respond to calibrated challenge: too little challenge invites decay, the right dose drives renewal and growth.

Human learning follows the same logic. Struggle, what educators call “desirable difficulty”, is the stimulus for neuro synaptic remodeling, deeper encoding, and ultimately the capture of knowledge . On the other hand, effortless consumption rarely rewires anything - you just run an existing circuit . The trick lies in the magnitude, you want eustress, not overwhelm. It’s like the Goldilocks portion of resistance that keeps feedback and growth flowing and motivation intact. When we remove all frictions, our minds, just like our muscles will decondition. That’s where we need to incorporate purposeful frictions like you said, in order to strengthen. We are literally coded by our DNA for calibrated struggle. Without it, biological systems will drift toward atrophy and with it, they will evolve.