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People sometimes say, of a certain task, “It is not difficult; it just takes a lot of steps”. Or perhaps “It’s not hard, just tedious”.

I also am guilty of having uttered, if not that exact phrase, that sentiment.

But what makes something difficult? Is not requiring a lot of intermediate actions something that increases the difficulty of a task?

Certainly not everything that is difficult requires many steps.

Something may be physically demanding – it is hard to accomplish because of the physical conditioning and exertion required.
Something may be mentally demanding – it is difficult to accomplish because of unfamiliarity with a concept.

I think that most things that are difficult are difficult because they require a lot of steps.

This assumes that the intermediate steps are not all the same. If the intermediate steps are repetitive, then yes you could say it is tedious.

But even then, to many people a tedious task is difficult, maybe because their minds can’t occupy themselves without external stimulus. Or maybe they have carpal tunnel. Either way, tedium is a type of difficulty.

So if someone tells you “it’s not hard, it’s just _______”, you can reasonably assume that whatever the blank was, that is a form of difficulty.

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