[Telaneo]

> Is playing Candy Crush productive?

If you enjoy it, then yes.

> Hard work is a good in it of itself. People pay lip service to the idea that we shouldn't be productive or measure our "worth" (whatever that is) by productivity but they don't live it. For instance, I don't know any parent that doesn't push or at least hope their children work hard at something. Anything. Do something hard. Play a sport. Learn an instrument. Study math. This is common sense.

Hard work is good insofar as you enjoy it or it leads you to things that you do enjoy. Do those things if you enjoy them. Hard things are enjoyable too. I stopped doing most of them because I didn't enjoy them.

[bko]

If you consider Candy Crush as productive I guess words just don't have meaning anymore so there's no point arguing.

I highly doubt you actually believe this, but I have been wrong before.

[Telaneo]

> If you consider Candy Crush as productive I guess words just don't have meaning anymore so there's no point arguing.

I'm using the word differently to you. It's productive insofar as you enjoy doing it.

Just to make a point, have these two definitions from Wiktionary:

> Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile.

Capable of producing enjoyment, yup. I'd call playing Candy Crush productive if enjoyment is your goal.

> Yielding good or useful results

The good result here is, again, the enjoyment of whatever. If you enjoy playing Candy Crush, then playing it gives you a good or useful result, namely the enjoyment of playing it.

> I highly doubt you actually believe this, but I have been wrong before.

If someone truly finds Candy Crush enjoyable to the point they do it everyday or whatever, and we're not talking addiction (so they're not actually enjoying it, but rather feel compelled to do it), then more power to them. I wish my desires were so simple.

[senordevnyc]

Oh come on. Parent is right, at this point, words have no meaning. By this logic, everything produces something, therefore everything is productive.

[Telaneo]

> By this logic, everything produces something, therefore everything is productive.

Yes. That word is only useful insofar as you say or imply a goal. Candy Crush is not productive in gathering food.

Most people imply the goal to be money. I'd rather imply enjoyment. See my OP.

[senordevnyc]

And yet, you seemed to have been using it the way the rest of us are in this discussion, right here:

You are worth so much more than your productivity.

I think the issue here is that everyone else is having a discussion about economics, how we efficiently allocate scarce resources as a society, and the role that individual productivity plays in that allocation. You're having a discussion about enjoying your life. Which is great, if you want to play Candy Crush all day and call it "productive" because that makes you feel better, go for it.

But I'm not interested in paying your bills so you can.

[Telaneo]

Even if you're bad at productivity, even in the sense of producing enjoyment, you're still worth so much more.

My OP was explicitly about not taking economic productivity as the be-all-end-all of someone.

[bko]

YES I am vegan and YES I eat meat. We exist