# Products Beat Thinking By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-11-12 Organizations produce products. The shape, form, and content of those products vary depending on the industry and market, but each company produces something. A good-looking product will almost always beat quality thinking when the chips are down. This can be disappointing for those who think ideas matter and that strategy is about interrogating the unknown. What makes the situation worse is the awareness that very few people read the product. They might look at it. They might read the executive summary. They might flip through it and read some of the bold text, but it is doubtful they took time to read and reflect on its contents. Maybe when it comes to intellectual work, the product is simply a token that gets exchanged in the commerce of ideas. The symbolic nature of the product stands in for the people who thought behind it. When people see the product, they interpret it as the manifestation of great thinking. It could work this way. Perhaps at one time, it did. Increasingly, it seems doubtful that it does. Advancements in AI nearly assure us that it can’t work this way in the future. When products beat thinking, superficiality reigns. For those engaged in thinking professions, it will be challenging to continue to think when the product is all that matters. Thinking is inefficient. It will be easy for this skill to atrophy. But, when thinking is needed, no number of flashy products will substitute for its absence. #### Related Items [[Organization]] [[Products]] [[Thinking]] [[Artificial Intelligence]] [[Profession]] [[Ideas]]