High Agency
Low agency: we put a man on the moon (peak high agency) before anyone put wheels on suitcases. Everyone carried their suitcases — because everyone else carried their suitcases.
Via Nassim Taleb
How To Spot High Agency People:
- Weird teenage hobbies: Teenage years are the hardest time to go against social pressures. If they can go against the crowd as a teenager, they can go against the crowd as an adult.‍
- ‍Treadmill energy If you meet with them when you're tired and defeated, you leave the room ready to run a marathon on a treadmill with max incline.‍‍
- You can never guess their opinion The boxer who writes poetry. The advertiser obsessed with the history of war. The beauty queen who reads Nietzsche. If their beliefs don't line up with their stereotypes, they've exercised agency.‍
- ‍Immigrant mentality If they've moved from their hometown, that's a good sign. If they've moved from their home country, that's an even greater sign. It takes agency to spot you're in the wrong place, resourcefulness to operationalize a move and a growth mindset to start from zero in a new location.‍
- Sends you niche content A low agency trap is to look at the social engagement of content before deeming its quality. High agency people just look at the content. They spot upcoming trends very early.‍
- Mean to your face, nice behind your back The social incentives are to be nice to people's faces and gossip behind their backs. To do the opposite requires agency because they're swimming against the social tide.‍‍
- Quit something of prestige - The miserable management consultant who breaks free from their golden handcuffs to become a stand-up comedian has to overcome momentum, social shame and sunk cost fallacy. The high agency person lives many lives and isn’t afraid to reinvent themselves — regardless of the perceived social cost.‍
- ‍They don’t trust. They verify - A low agency trap is to be hypnotized by groupthink. High agency people refuse to passively download the current thing without first verifying it for themselves:‍“They say” —> Who is they?"Science says” —> What is the science? Can I see the primary sources?”Misinformation —> What is your theory of knowledge? Can you show me the first principles?‍
- ‍Self-taught learning machines Whether it’s learning to play their favourite song on the Saxophone or deconstructing how 3D printers work — they start from zero and use agency to climb up the knowledge ladder. Tesla, Da Vinci and Darwin didn’t ask for permission from institutions to just do things.‍
- ‍They question the question Before rushing to answer your question, they question whether it’s the right question to answer. They know the right answer to the wrong question is worse than no answer to the right question.