Field note
When did productivity outrank curiosity?
A spiral of leaves on dark soil, and a question about what we reward.
Someone is placing leaves into a spiral on bare soil. The work is slow. It will not survive the next rain as a product. The question on the picture is the one a movement like this has to be willing to sit inside. At what point did being productive become more important than being curious?
Curiosity is the first move in the sequence the organisation actually uses. Observe. Then explore. Then experiment. Then evolve. Productivity, unqualified, skips to a result. It is how a food forest becomes a photo, and a workshop becomes a certificate, and a conversation becomes content.
None of that means the work should be aimless. A roof has to keep rain out. A kitchen has to feed people. The L-board is a way of staying curious without becoming decorative. You try a thing. You write what happened. You let the next attempt change. The spiral is not the deliverable. The attention is.
If you are coming to a space, or bringing a class, this is the temper to bring. Not a hunger to finish. A willingness to notice. The movement does not have a productivity target for your transformation. It has a practice, and a record.