the book's abstruse subject matter and dense prose make for effortful reading
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System 1 is fast, intuitive, and effortless; System 2 is slow, deliberate, and effortful.—Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Forbes.com, 27 May 2026 But flanked by a dozen or so time-lapse cloud sequences, Maras and his cast strain toward a kind of biblical grandeur their painfully effortful film can’t reach.—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 26 May 2026 The clowning might be a little too effortful.—Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2026 But this Roundabout production at Studio 54 — the site of glittering debauchery of another era — just isn’t all that much fun, being mostly effortful, maddening and finally exhausting.—Frank Rizzo, Variety, 24 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for effortful