Purposeful Conversations vs. Random Conversations

I wrote "vs." in the title but there doesn't need to be a contradiction.

A conversation may start off with a specific purpose such as deciding on an itinerary, but if the parties involved are open to it the conversation can become random and lead to who knows where. I booked a hotel in Taormina at the weekend and having cleared the details, ventured a few random comments and observations which opened the whole thing up. All sorts of information comes up, some of it "contentual" (the director is a former tennis champion) and some of it contextual (Antonella enjoys chatting and has a sense of humour).

Conversely, a conversation may start off random and increasingly focus on a purpose. For example this morning I called Mike for a chat and we ended up talking about how and where I would ideally provide the new service I'm thinking through.