[mikekij]

The flip side of this is that it may be helpful to tell students "This can be easy for you too, with a little work!"

As a high school physics teacher, I had students look at me like I was a genius because I could do inclined plane problems in my head. But in reality, do 50,000 incline plane problems, and you'll probably be cranking them out too!

Tell them "This CAN BE easy with some work" and you're doing your students a service.

[greghendershott]

Exactly. If I ever say this, what I mean to be saying is something more positive. More like: "Good news! This is something that's actually simple to fix/do. Even if you find it difficult at first (I sure did), someday you'll look back on this and think it's really easy."

Because although programming is something I enjoy, it hasn't necessarily always come easily to me. I'm not a natural. I learned to be good(ish) at it by slogging away doggedly.

So to me, it's a long -- and never-ending -- journey of things that are difficult... until they become easy. Being confused about something is a constant fact of life, for me. But so is a growing list of things that, in hindsight, now seem easy.

I wish I knew some pithy, quick way to say that to people, so that it's the positive message I mean.

[sirmarksalot]

"Of course it's hard, you haven't done it before!"

Edit: Only really applies to a very specific kind of situation. Doesn't help if the person has already encountered that type of problem, and had their confidence shattered by a bad teacher or a hostile environment. My sister in law is a math lecturer who often does remedial classes, and she spends a lot of her time trying to teach students not to be afraid of the subject matter.