The Parable of the Undertaken Actions

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, sometimes I feel I spend more time at work recording my actions at work than I spend actually doing work.  Is there a way out of this rut?”

Josh spoke thus:

A person of action was sitting in a cubicle.

“I am a person of action,” the person of action wrote on a pad of paper.  Below this, the person of action wrote a title for a list.  The title read, “Actions to undertake.”

“That’s a to-do list,” the person in the next cube told the person of action.

“If it were your list, it might be a to-do list,” the person of action said, “You are a doer.  I am not a doer.  I am a person of action.”

“What actions will you undertake?” the doer asked the person of action.

The person of action told the doer an action the person of action might undertake.

“I can do that,” the doer said.

“Of course you can do that,” the person of action said, “You are a doer, you do things, and that is a thing you can do.”

“You can do that too,” the doer said.

“It’s not my job to do that,” the person of action said, “It is my job to undertake the action.  I am a person of action.  I undertake actions.”

“I’m free this afternoon,” the doer said, “I can do that for you.”

“I don’t want you to do it for me,” the person of action said, “I’ve been tasked to undertake the action.  If you do it, the action won’t be undertaken.”

“Well then I can undertake the action,” the doer said.

“Then what would I do?” the person of action asked.

“You could do something else,” the doer said.

“If I start doing things, then who will undertake the actions?” the person of action asked.

“I can undertake, and you can do,” the doer said.

“But I’ve never done that,” the person of action said.

“And yet the action has been undertaken,” the doer said.

“I’m good at taking actions, I take actions.  I am a person of action,” the person of action said.

“Is there a difference?” the doer asked.

“Of course there’s a difference,” the person of action said,  “If the action is undertaken, it’s recorded on the spreadsheet.  Anything that’s done is put in the database.”

The doer said, “But surely if you cross-reference the spreadsheet and the database, you’re talking about the same things.”

“Doing is a verb,” the person of action said, “An action is a noun.”

“I could record the thing that is done as a noun, in the spreadsheet,” said the doer, “And I could record taking the action as a verb in the database.”

“You could do that,” the person of action said.

“You could take that action,” the doer said.

“I’ll add it to my list,” the person of action said.