The person pedaling uphill knows how much the easiest-looking incline can ask.

A gradient that barely registers to a passenger can be relentless to someone under their own power. The incline looks like nothing and asks for something continuously, which makes it hard to explain to anyone who has only driven it. Effort is invisible when the terrain looks flat. That is true of jobs, illnesses and family situations as much as roads.

Be slow to call something easy on someone else’s behalf. If a person says a thing is taking a lot out of them, take the report at face value rather than checking it against how it looks. They are the only one with the measurement.