## Productive friction is grip > “Friction, after all, is what gives us grip. And sometimes, the harder way is the better one.”⁠ Friction helps learning by forcing engagement & judgement Example 1: Van Lancker describes how, as a child, he and his brother prepared a sailboat themselves. They made mistakes, the boat capsized, and their father had to rescue them > “Understanding how all the components go together goes far beyond being a necessary chore; it is essential to making it work at all.”⁠ Example 2: Using auto-enhacne for photo-editing ut makes your pictures look better, but it also “abstracts a lot of the conceptual thinking away.” You don’t learn what makes a photo compelling—you just get a generic improvement. ### Taste is a product of friction > Taste is an accumulated ability, earned through making and repeated discernment. It cannot be shortcut or passively consumed. It can only bloom through practice, care, and cumulative experience. Friction isn't inefficiency to be eliminated. It's the resistance necessary to build genuine judgment and refine taste. Its value doesn't lie in the final product but in the work itself.