-We've been conditioned over our human existence to think of the unknown as something to be feared. These emotions have served us well and have kept us from venturing too far out of our comfort zone. When the unknown can house all sorts of dangers it makes sense not to provoke them by showing up on their doorstep. But programming is not the same as venturing into a dark forest or peeking into a damp cave; programming hardly warrants the amount of fear we give it. Instead we need to realize that we're not in any mortal danger and our fears are merely letting us know that we're venturing into the uncharted territory of ignorance where we shall find understanding.
+Steven Pressfield in _The War of Art_ nicknamed these feelings "The Resistance". He considers The Resistance as a sort of mythological being who lives in each of us to thwart creative acts. As the work progresses The Resistance ratchets up the pressure to stop by introducing the feelings of fear and anxiety that we mentioned above. I think of The Resistance as something that also happens whenever we are learning, especially if we're learning tools that help us in our creative pursuits. Pressfield limited his definition to creative folks who were working to complete creative work (book, painting, game, etc.) but I'm expanding his definition to the learning process itself. In our case The Resistance shows up when we're learning the tools to help us be more creative. The Resistance is what tells us we're not good enough to learn these things, or we're unworthy of the benefits they'll bring us. It tries to keep us safe in what we already know.