---
id: "contrarian-value-of-friction"
type: "contrarian-insight"
source_timestamps: ["§ How to Redesign Entry-Level Jobs", "¶20", "¶21"]
tags: ["contrarian", "workplace-design", "psychology"]
related: ["concept-intelligent-failures", "concept-microwaving-ideas"]
challenges: "The tech-utopian view that the ultimate goal of AI is to remove all friction, struggle, and difficulty from human work."
sources: ["reskilling"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-reskilling"
originDay: 10
articleStem: "hbr-edu-46-perils-replace-entry-level"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/09/the-perils-of-using-ai-to-replace-entry-level-jobs"
sourceTitle: "The Perils of Using AI to Replace Entry-Level Jobs"
---
# The Value of Friction and Discomfort in Work

**Contrarian insight.** The prevailing tech-utopian view is that AI should remove all friction, obstacles, and tedious effort from work, making everything seamless. The authors challenge this: **friction is a feature, not a bug, of early-career development.** If machines remove every obstacle, work becomes 'too easy' and devoid of the challenge that makes learning meaningful. The effort, pain, and discomfort of thinking and struggling are precisely what grow a professional's capacity — the mechanism of [[concept-intelligent-failures]] and the workplace warning of [[concept-microwaving-ideas]].

**What it challenges:** the tech-utopian goal of removing all friction, struggle, and difficulty from human work. It is operationalized by [[action-preserve-productive-struggle]].

**Enrichment nuance:** the argument is directionally correct but sharpens under scrutiny. An expert would distinguish **low-value friction** (busywork — manual report formatting) from **high-value friction** (real responsibility, uncertainty, feedback). Resilience and judgment can also be built through simulations, structured practice, and mentoring — not only through legacy tedium. The prescription is therefore: strip the low-value friction, deliberately preserve (or manufacture) the high-value kind.


## Related across articles
- [[contrarian-friction-is-good]]
- [[concept-healthy-friction]]
- [[concept-intelligent-failures]]