No, "look for" and "find" do NOT both mean searching.
In the post you quoted, the person made it clear, I thought.
"Searching" and "looking for" are ongoing activities. You look or search until that single moment when you find it. The act of finding is instantaneous, so it cannot have a progressive form.
Lets say you throw a stone off a very tall cliff. The stone falls for a long time and then it hits the ground. There are many seconds when you can say it's falling but only on moment when it's hitting. While it falls, you don't say "the stone is hitting the ground." It fell for a long time then hit the ground. It's the same with looking for and finding. You look for a time and then hopefully in an instant you find it.
Unlike the stone that must eventually hit the ground, however, there is no guarantee that something lost will be found. Thats why you can ask someone to look, but only ask that they TRY to help you find. It might never be found.
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You will hear utterances such as "Can you find it for me?" Natural responses could, "I'll try", "Well, I'll look", or "I don't know yet".
The message behind the words may well be, "I want you to look for it and, I hope, find it", this does not mean that 'look for' and 'find' mean the same thing. I think that Barb has made the difference very clear; I just wanted to add the note on that question.
https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/174305-find-vs-look-for/page2
In the post you quoted, the person made it clear, I thought.
"Searching" and "looking for" are ongoing activities. You look or search until that single moment when you find it. The act of finding is instantaneous, so it cannot have a progressive form.
Lets say you throw a stone off a very tall cliff. The stone falls for a long time and then it hits the ground. There are many seconds when you can say it's falling but only on moment when it's hitting. While it falls, you don't say "the stone is hitting the ground." It fell for a long time then hit the ground. It's the same with looking for and finding. You look for a time and then hopefully in an instant you find it.
Unlike the stone that must eventually hit the ground, however, there is no guarantee that something lost will be found. Thats why you can ask someone to look, but only ask that they TRY to help you find. It might never be found.
.......................
You will hear utterances such as "Can you find it for me?" Natural responses could, "I'll try", "Well, I'll look", or "I don't know yet".
The message behind the words may well be, "I want you to look for it and, I hope, find it", this does not mean that 'look for' and 'find' mean the same thing. I think that Barb has made the difference very clear; I just wanted to add the note on that question.
https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/174305-find-vs-look-for/page2
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