Forgive me, but I don't know what you mean by "cheese-moving pain". Two questions: first, is this a well-known term that I've just not run across? And second, what do you mean by it? (And if the answer to 1 is "no" then, WTH?)
Well, even you'd have to admit that this comment flogs the goat. There is so much goat flogging going around on HN, it's no surprise. Obviously we're lacking a gilded trough.
I've never read the book the phrase comes from actually, so I can't speak to it directly. I'm only aware of the phrase "moving the cheese" because it has become a bit of a meme over the past few years in development/IT (this may be a regional thing).