Had a discussion today with the guy about how he had not been able to read earlier. We got hit a sticking about whether or not he had previously found it hard to tap out sounds. (It's a technique in which you tap as you make the sounds of each letter in an unfamiliar word.)
I said that there was a time at which he used to find it hard to do that. He disagreed. The distinction he makes is that, back then (six months ago), it was in fact easy for him to do; he just never wanted to do it. I argued that if you don't want to do a thing, in practice, it is a hard thing to do.
An hour after his bedtime, I'm still working, and I now realize that I do think the way he does. The thing I have to do is a task I think of as "easy". But I don't want to do it. And so, it's taking far longer than it would had I wanted to do it. In practice, it's hard.