the.com/discouragement
the quiet voice that quits on your behalf before you even get to vote
means the feeling of losing one's confidence, hope, or enthusiasm — the sense that effort isn't worth it.
from From the verb 'discourage,' which English borrowed in the 1400s from Old French 'descouragier' — built from 'des-' (away, the undoing) plus 'corage,' courage. At its heart sits the Latin 'cor,' meaning heart. So to be discouraged is, quite literally, to have the heart taken out of you; the abstract noun 'discouragement' followed later, naming the hollow that's left.
- latin root
- from cor, heart — literally heart being drained out
- contagious
- spreads through teams faster than any actual failure
- timing trick
- strikes hardest right before breakthroughs, not after them
- weaponized
- armies have lost without a single shot fired
the long march — chinese communists retreated 6,000 miles in 1934-35, losing 90% of forces but regrouped to eventual victory
the dotcom crash 2000-2002 — nasdaq fell 78%, wiping out $5 trillion in value and shuttering thousands of startups overnight