The slow tree

A seed you plant today gives no fruit tomorrow. A fruit tree takes about five years before its first harvest, and then it bears for fifty.

Plant a seed today $\Rightarrow$ fruit tomorrow $=0$. A fruit tree: first harvest after $\approx 5$ years, then fruit for $50$.

seed$(t_0)\Rightarrow$ fruit$(t_0+1)=0$. tree: fruit $=0$ for $t<5$ y; $>0$ for $5\le t\le 55$.

Most people give up in the third year, when the tree is tall but still empty. They see five years of waiting and forget the fifty years of fruit.

Most give up in year $3$: tree tall, fruit $=0$. They see the $5$ years of waiting and forget the $50$ of fruit.

most quit at $t=3$: $h$ large, fruit $=0$. they see $5$, forget $50$.

Waiting is not doing nothing. Every day you water it, the roots grow a little deeper, even when nothing changes above the ground.

Waiting $\ne$ doing nothing. $\forall$ day you water it: roots a little deeper, even if above ground $\Delta =0$.

wait $\ne 0$. $\forall$ day: $\Delta r>0$, even if $\Delta h=0$ ($r$ root, $h$ height).

So the patient one and the hasty one plant the same seed; the only difference is that one of them is still there in year six.

Patient and hasty plant the same seed; the difference: one is still there in year $6$.

same seed; patient: $\exists$ at $t=6$; hasty: $\nexists$.

The rule: judge a slow thing by its whole life, not by its first year. For every year of waiting, this tree gives ten years of fruit.

Rule: judge a slow thing by its whole life, not by year $1$. Waiting to fruit $=5:50=1:10$.

judge$(t=55)$, not judge$(t=1)$. wait $:$ fruit $=5:50=1:10$.