Mystical Product Philosophy

Getting ahead of misinformation with mystical confidence

Apr 07, 2023

In the near future, we’ll all be swimming in misinformation, generated by carefully worded prompts, machines trained on biased data sources, and actors motivated by the worst angels of our nature.

To get ahead of the curve, I asked the magical transformative word generator for its mystical thoughts on connecting classical and modern views of human problems.

What are ten quotes connecting modern best practices of product management to Neoplatonist philosophy?

The machine did not disappoint.

The answers were…interesting, because:

“once written the program lives its own life, as it were; without huge effort, exactly how the program is working can remain mysterious”

And, as Noah Smith wrote:

“AI thus has the potential to be a God of Lies, spamming our already hopelessly contaminated information ecosystem with plausible-sounding falsehoods”

Historical Context

Neoplatonism is a term used to describe a school of thought which emerged in the 3rd century CE and was influenced by Plato’s philosophy. Neoplatonists tried to synthesize and reconcile aspects of the Greek philosophy and religion.

Early Christian theologians and bishops from Rome to Nicomedia to Alexandria dealt with views which grouped together Arians and Neoplatonists as radical heretics.

They also developed a complex metaphysical system that involved different levels of reality emanating from a supreme principle called “the One.”

Some influential Neoplatonists were Plotinus, Porphyry, Proclus, and Marsilio Ficino.

Neoplatonism had a significant impact on early Christianity, Islamic philosophy, Jewish thought, Western mysticism, and Renaissance humanism.

The Florentine Platonist Renaissance influenced the development of European thought and culture, particularly in fields of ethics, aesthetics, and mysticism.

Bridge the Gap

Leadership in a post-Zero Interest Rate Policy environment calls for outside-the-box thinking and a blast from the past.

The release of transformational tools like generative AI mean that humanity, pluralistic values, and skepticism should be prioritized.

The modern education system, society, and industry have enormous opportunity to rethink, reimagine, and redeploy resources to solve problems at scale.

Targets - of all kinds - moved.

As a language and history nerd, my sense is that potential answers to headline news problems might be written in Latin or Greek (or Sanskrit!)

Industrial Ingredients

The Renaissance melting pot of ideas, languages, and philosophies was still centuries away from the Industrial Revolution.

If you’re still tracking the ancient to modern timeline, the earliest history of product management in industry can be traced back to a memo written by Neil H. McElroy at Procter & Gamble in 1931.

He proposed the idea of hiring “Brand Men” who would be responsible for managing all aspects of a product, from understanding the customer’s needs and problems to developing, marketing and selling the product.

So, here1 is a metaphysical industrial philosophy to stand the test of time, reconcile conflicting values, and embrace societal transformation.