The Mystery of Product

The chilly weather streak we are in, to borrow a military proverb, reminds us that we go into the winter with the spring, summer and fall we had, not the ones we wish we had.

The transitional weather becomes an incredible time to reflect on what we have produced in our year. This season also leads right to the holidays, when more than any other time we gather with the families whom in certain ways we are "products" of. 

Consider, then, please doing a "thought experiment":

Imagine standing in a position where on one side of you is your experience the product economy. 

On the other side of you is any awareness that you may have of you, yourself, being a product of something, someplace, someone...

You stand in between these two things.  

Something happens in that zone. It is an outward-meets-inward place of awareness. 

Relating to the product economy, we genuinely value the thought that we may have dliigently produced this year. (It can't hurt that the cold is setting in. There is something primordial about the season having a change in earthly productivity that makes us appreciate our "harvest," our "stock," perhaps)

Relating to we, ourselves, being a "product," we might be thinking of our mother, brother, etc. And there is something natural about arriving at holidays with emotions like nostalgia, love, regret, happiness, chagrin, or something different as some of us come to our current or former home of the holidays. We might tend to reflect on how we are doing as a "product" of all this.

If you are pursuing a career in product, as many are these days, it is stunning to me, and quite so, to even contemplate everything that "went into us," and then to also try to hold a perspective of everything that "comes out of us." This is to say, all that produced us, and all that we produce. From point of view of the creative process and productive cycles, there is little that could be more overwhelming.

By holding everything like this, what could we possibly learn about being people who are capable of developing a better product in our careers?

As far as the piece about how we are "produced," when the incomparable spark that is human life is (re)produced, we are procreated.

By adulthood, no longer mainly a product of others, we ourselves take responsibility for pursuing who we are going to be. For product professionals, a lot of who we are goes into the products we develop.

Some open ended questions, larger than this blog, are:

What is the relationship between our being a product, and working toward a product? 

Considering who we are, what is the nature of products we develop?

For what end do we have hands and hearts to develop and to use products? 

"You harvest what you plant." (Proverbs 14:14)

"You were left in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come, share in my happiness!” (Matthew 25:21) 

"Spend time doing something useful and worthwhile. (Titus 3:14)

"Go into the world. Proclaim to all of creation euangelion." (Mark 16:15)