now | language - more on fruitfulness

During the recent LYT workshop, after I shared about fruitfulness, below is an ABRIDGED version a colleague's perspective about productivity and fruitfulness -

Productivity is all or nothing. You are only productive if you complete the task and achieve the desired outcome. Fruitfulness is a way of looking at your efforts without judging the outcome. ... But unsuccessful attempts also count as outcomes ... Failure becomes an opportunity to practise other things ... distinction between fruitfulness and productivity means we can be fruitful in our efforts, even when we might not have been productive.

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(my reply to her)

I would say I don't quite look at "success" and "failure" for these two words - HOWEVER, I completely understand how you are using them.

I do think productivity tends to be more binary. It's "this" or "that" - done or not done. Started or not started. Friction vs. no friction/flow. Productivity is spoken about in a more "absolute" which I think is what you are expressing. There tends to feel like a kind of discreteness.

For fruitfulness, arguably the activities can be discussed in a kind of binary way, however, as you hit upon it - CONTEXT matters. A child who is learning is context. level of understanding/knowledge. prior experience (or not). AND acknowledging the "change" that happens between each activity is the fruitfulness.

I feel like it's easier to converse about this.

However, I'm hoping my comment about the "change" that is happening is part of fruitfulness. And in some cases, one may not "see" the change ... it's the fact that something was started/initiated toward a thing that is fruitful. And for some activities, change takes time.

So when there is that "down time" - folks don't consider that productive - yet the fact that there is something in motion is fruitful.