December 14th 2023, Esalen

There’s two modes of building products. One is when you are striving to find your center or fit with your self and the audience – commonly called product market fit (PMF). This requires coming up with hypotheses, testing, learning and iterating till you find flow. Sometimes it requires taking big bets to test wide and deep if you are really off center. The other mode is growth of product of self (Product Growth i.e. PG) – this is when you have found your center but you are growing in relationship with your audience. This is akin to play – you give and receive continually to stay in a state of flow but you are growing to expand to a higher state together. 

The two modes require slightly different energies. PMF requires bold action to cut through the noise and find the center. This to me is masculine in nature. PG, on the other hand, requires a more feminine energy to nurture and co-create. 

As humanity we have found PMF with nature or had at some point (hunter-gatherer). What we need next is something more nurturing, to co-create with nature and grow in unison. It requires patience because it looks slow like a pregnancy but it’s happening. Life creation appears slow and then happens all at once. 

Feminine energy is directing and masculine energy can fulfil and support its creation.

An ML model has an objective function, multiple data points and a gestation period which is training followed by a prediction with error rates. 

If we can develop consciousness as a product where we are mindful of what the objective function is and can be present during training with accurate data, and then play with prediction, as response and intention and give and receive feedback, what we can generate is a reality which is true to our objective function. Objective function can be our collectively chosen purpose and desires. If we don’t know our collective purpose, we start with desires and the purpose will emerge.