Summary
This content argues that agency, the ability to set one's own direction and take action, is the most crucial skill for future success, especially with the rise of AI. It contrasts high-agency individuals with conformists, emphasizing iteration, learning from experiments, and embracing difficult goals. The piece posits that AI is a tool for those with agency, not a replacement, and that generalists, who can adapt and synthesize diverse knowledge, will thrive. It outlines 5 fundamental human capabilities (computation, transformation, variation, selection, attention) that AI cannot surpass and provides practical steps for developing agency through practice, experimentation, and teaching.
Key Insights
Agency is the most important skill, ensuring relevance and adaptability throughout life.
Agency is identified as the most critical skill for current relevance, future importance, and lifelong utility. It empowers individuals to set their life's direction, perform necessary actions, and resist distractions. This self-direction makes them resistant to replacement and enables rapid adaptation if they are ever displaced.
Agency involves iterating on actions without needing external approval.
True agency means not conforming but being in constant revolt to discover truth, acting as the subject of a sentence rather than an object. It's about initiating action towards a goal without external prompting, instruction, or permission, and crucially, it involves an unwavering commitment to iteration: reflecting, adjusting, and trying again until the goal is reached.
High-agency individuals treat life as an experiment, embracing failure as part of the process.
Unlike the 'employee mindset' of low-agency individuals who follow assigned tasks and are compromised by a need for acceptance, high-agency people act as scientists of their own lives. They formulate hypotheses, test them, and expect to fail frequently, viewing these failures as essential data for refinement rather than reasons to abandon the goal.
AI does not threaten high agency; it amplifies it by removing barriers to knowledge and action.
The availability of knowledge through tools like AI has made success easier, but it is agency, not access, that determines outcomes. High-agency individuals will leverage AI to accelerate their progress exponentially by acting without permission, as the barriers to action are now minimal. Those lacking agency will continue to struggle, regardless of available information.
AI is a tool that requires human vision, context, and decision-making to be effective.
AI is a tool that needs human direction for specific purposes. While AI can generate content, its true value in areas like monetization, loyalty, or brand building requires human orchestration, learning, and integration into a larger vision. Relying on AI to make all decisions results in content lacking theme, personality, vision, or context, which are the hallmarks of human creators.
Generalists, not specialists, will thrive in the AI age by synthesizing diverse knowledge.
The traditional education system, designed for conformity, disadvantages bright minds by promoting narrow specialization. While often misquoted, the idea that 'jack of all trades' are masters of none is flawed. Visionaries like Shakespeare, CEOs, or Steve Jobs were synthesizers who used diverse interests to their advantage. Specialists tied to evolving skills are vulnerable, whereas generalists focus on goals and adapt.
Human capabilities like computation and transformation are not fundamentally limited by AI.
The 5 fundamental human capabilities—computation, transformation, variation, selection, and attention—are not inherently surpassed by AI. Computation is limited by time and memory, which humans possess and AI can match. Transformation, or creation, is similarly bound by time and resources, not processing speed. AI cannot expedite physical creation beyond natural constraints.
Agency is an art form developed by practicing existing systems until one can create new ones.
Agency is not merely a trait but an art form best observed in games. It involves understanding and operating within established rules ('playing by the rules') until one gains the mastery to define their own. This progression, from beginner to advanced levels, allows for increasingly challenging and meaningful goals.
Developing agency involves pursuing something, researching processes, experimenting, identifying patterns, creating unique methods, and teaching.
To practice agency, one must first have something to pursue, often defined by understanding what one *doesn't* want. This involves researching successful external processes, experimenting with techniques, identifying core principles, tailoring methods to personal circumstances, and finally, teaching others to deepen understanding.
Sections
Introduction: The Paramount Skill
Many skills will become irrelevant in the future, but high-agency individuals can adapt by acquiring any necessary skill.
The prevailing sentiment is that many skills will lose relevance in 10-20 years. However, individuals with high agency are not dependent on specific skills for success. They are not specialists who limit their learning. Instead, they possess a vision and understand that in the current world, any skill or knowledge can be acquired to achieve their desired life. This agency, if not cultivated by parents, requires deliberate and often painful relearning.
Agency is the most important skill, ensuring relevance and adaptability throughout life.
Agency is identified as the most critical skill for current relevance, future importance, and lifelong utility. It empowers individuals to set their life's direction, perform necessary actions, and resist distractions. This self-direction makes them resistant to replacement and enables rapid adaptation if they are ever displaced.
The article will explore what agency is, why it's vital, and how to cultivate it.
The author intends to share five key ideas to explain what agency entails, its increasing importance, and practical methods for practicing it to achieve personal goals.
I - Understanding Agency
Agency involves iterating on actions without needing external approval.
True agency means not conforming but being in constant revolt to discover truth, acting as the subject of a sentence rather than an object. It's about initiating action towards a goal without external prompting, instruction, or permission, and crucially, it involves an unwavering commitment to iteration: reflecting, adjusting, and trying again until the goal is reached.
Conformity, driven by survival and societal programming, hinders genuine agency.
Agency is contrasted with mechanical conformity, which stems from societal programming and dependence on external validation rather than independent investigation. This stage of cognitive development, prevalent in about 50% of the population, prioritizes psychological survival through reproducing beliefs and ideas. Dependence on jobs or rigid belief systems limits agency because survival is perceived to be at stake, forcing conformity.
Even the popular concept of 'high agency' in tech can be a form of conformity.
The author notes that the prevalent use of the term 'high agency' within the tech and business sectors can itself become a form of conformity to current trends, highlighting that everyone is to some degree a conformist.
High-agency individuals treat life as an experiment, embracing failure as part of the process.
Unlike the 'employee mindset' of low-agency individuals who follow assigned tasks and are compromised by a need for acceptance, high-agency people act as scientists of their own lives. They formulate hypotheses, test them, and expect to fail frequently, viewing these failures as essential data for refinement rather than reasons to abandon the goal.
A belief system that skews perception of difficult goals leads to inaction and suffering.
Low-agency individuals often suffer from learned helplessness, similar to Seligman's dog experiment, where they are conditioned to believe they have no control. This prevents them from attempting difficult goals, even when solutions are available, causing them to passively accept undesirable circumstances ('bear the shocks of the default path').
High-agency individuals embrace difficult goals, understanding they are achievable with acquired skills.
This contrasts with low-agency individuals. High-agency people understand that goals can be categorized as easy, difficult, or impossible. They believe that difficult goals, while currently out of reach, can be achieved by acquiring the necessary skills and resources. They do not let perceived difficulty paralyze them into inaction.
II - AI and Agency
AI does not threaten high agency; it amplifies it by removing barriers to knowledge and action.
The availability of knowledge through tools like AI has made success easier, but it is agency, not access, that determines outcomes. High-agency individuals will leverage AI to accelerate their progress exponentially by acting without permission, as the barriers to action are now minimal. Those lacking agency will continue to struggle, regardless of available information.
AI is a tool that requires human vision, context, and decision-making to be effective.
AI is a tool that needs human direction for specific purposes. While AI can generate content, its true value in areas like monetization, loyalty, or brand building requires human orchestration, learning, and integration into a larger vision. Relying on AI to make all decisions results in content lacking theme, personality, vision, or context, which are the hallmarks of human creators.
AI cannot replace the contextual understanding and vision of a human creator.
AI-generated content often lacks a throughline, theme, personality, or vision because AI relies on aggregated internet opinions. True value comes from human creators who provide context. AI is practically useless for content creation unless the user already possesses the skill to create valuable content. Most AI-generated content fails because it lacks this human-driven context.
AI amplifies existing skills; it doesn't replace the core need for vision, brand mission, and iteration.
Building a business requires a brand mission that AI can help execute, coupled with constant iteration. Writing a book necessitates control over details and audience engagement, which AI doesn't provide. Creating art still demands a foundational idea. AI enhances execution but does not substitute for the underlying vision, skill, or strategic effort required for success. Tools change, but vision and agency are permanent.
III - The Rise of Generalists
Generalists, not specialists, will thrive in the AI age by synthesizing diverse knowledge.
The traditional education system, designed for conformity, disadvantages bright minds by promoting narrow specialization. While often misquoted, the idea that 'jack of all trades' are masters of none is flawed. Visionaries like Shakespeare, CEOs, or Steve Jobs were synthesizers who used diverse interests to their advantage. Specialists tied to evolving skills are vulnerable, whereas generalists focus on goals and adapt.
Humans are adaptable generalists capable of thriving in any environment through planning and execution.
Unlike specialized animals bound to specific niches, humans are tool builders who adapt. Whether placed in harsh or unfamiliar environments, humans can create plans, build shelter, and find sustenance because they possess the capacity for execution. This inherent adaptability makes them capable of thriving anywhere.
Societal systems encourage simplicity and predictability for organizational profit, hindering individual growth.
The Prussian education model, adopted widely, was designed for mass conformity, creating obedient citizens and workers rather than fostering independent thought. This system benefits organizations by keeping individuals simple, predictable, and easy to categorize, serving profit motives by maintaining a population that is less likely to challenge the status quo.
Free individuals should embrace multifaceted lives and interest-based education, revolting against predetermined paths.
While slaves were expected to specialize, free individuals are meant to engage in diverse pursuits throughout their lives. This involves revolting against the path set at birth, pursuing an education driven by personal interests, and utilizing one's capabilities wisely, rather than being confined to a single, predetermined role.
IV - The 5 Human Capabilities
Human capabilities like computation and transformation are not fundamentally limited by AI.
The 5 fundamental human capabilities—computation, transformation, variation, selection, and attention—are not inherently surpassed by AI. Computation is limited by time and memory, which humans possess and AI can match. Transformation, or creation, is similarly bound by time and resources, not processing speed. AI cannot expedite physical creation beyond natural constraints.
AI cannot fundamentally limit human ingenuity in computation and physical transformation.
The ability to compute is vast, and with tools like computers, humans can process immense amounts of information. Similarly, physical transformation—the act of creation—is a sequence of operations that humans with the right knowledge can perform, even to build complex things like spaceships. While AI might compute faster, it doesn't bypass the physical and temporal constraints of creation.
Navigating 'idea space' through variation, selection, and attention is a human strength AI cannot surpass.
Knowledge acquisition involves capturing patterns and navigating the 'idea space' (the unknown). Variation allows for infinite new ideas, selection refines them through error correction, and attention enables shifting perspectives. AI can replicate these processes, but humans possess the inherent agency to explore, adapt, and apply these capabilities within natural laws, making them equally capable in reaching possibilities.
Human attention can shift perspectives, a capability AI lacks without bending reality.
Humans can change focus by altering their perspective, allowing them to reframe problems and find opportunities. While humans struggle with paradigm lock and ideology, they possess the capability to adopt different lenses (spiritual, scientific) to address challenges. AI does not seem capable of surpassing this unless it can fundamentally alter reality, which would present a different kind of problem.
V - Practicing Agency
Agency is an art form developed by practicing existing systems until one can create new ones.
Agency is not merely a trait but an art form best observed in games. It involves understanding and operating within established rules ('playing by the rules') until one gains the mastery to define their own. This progression, from beginner to advanced levels, allows for increasingly challenging and meaningful goals.
Life becomes more engaging when pursuing self-chosen, challenging goals beyond predefined roles.
Life's enjoyment increases at higher 'levels' where individuals choose their own meaningful goals, rather than following assigned tasks. Feeling stuck or anxious often results from being trapped in repetitive, unfulfilling loops incentivized by external 'game makers' who benefit from stagnation. The ultimate challenge is pursuing one's own path.
Developing agency involves pursuing something, researching processes, experimenting, identifying patterns, creating unique methods, and teaching.
To practice agency, one must first have something to pursue, often defined by understanding what one *doesn't* want. This involves researching successful external processes, experimenting with techniques, identifying core principles, tailoring methods to personal circumstances, and finally, teaching others to deepen understanding.
Social media is a modern platform for practicing agency through content creation and public experimentation.
Social media serves as an accessible, low-risk, and low-cost environment for developing agency. It captures attention, provides a platform for content creation, offers direct feedback through public experimentation, and compels users to learn future-proof skills like writing, persuasion, marketing, and storytelling. It's a 'great modern game' for learning and agency.
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