Ivan Sutherland (inventor of Sketchpad - the first computer-aided drawing program) wrote about how "courage" feels, internally, when doing research or technological projects.

"[...] When I get bogged down in a project, the failure of my courage to go on never feels to me like a failure of courage, but always feels like something entirely dif- ferent. One such feeling is that my research isn't going anywhere anyhow, it isn't that important. Another feeling involves the urgency of something else. I have come to recognize these feelings as “who cares” and “the urgent drives out the important.” [...]"