In a post on Meta Stack Overflow, I used the word "willingness" in the following context:
[X] is showing a willingness to learn.
I justified this because [X] had posted a question asking to have a few lines of code explained. However, another user took it to mean
[X] has not demonstrated that they have put forth any effort to learn. Willingness means actual effort […]
Personally, I believe that there is a very great difference between the two words, both as defined and the underlying connotation, in that effort is not a prerequisite of willingness. Am I correct, or is "willingness" generally understood to require effort?
Best Answer
"Willingness" and "effort" are certainly not interchangeable. The former is an apt attitude for doing something, while the latter is the work thereof. Consider, "I want to get this done" compared to "I did that".