Agency
Ideas around agency, aka the sense of control that you feel in your life + your capacity to influence your own thoughts and behavior
unoptimal and
Agency
The simple individualistic humanist frame treats the person as the seat of agency, the atomic unit of moral responsibility and choice-making.
I want you to see the limits of this model. Agency exists at micro- and macro-scales, the “person” is just one step on the ladder.
I want you to see the limits of this model. Agency exists at micro- and macro-scales, the “person” is just one step on the ladder.
Tweets From Richard D. Bartlett · @RichDecibels • Tweet
The key insight is that these levers actually make a difference in the way I move through the world. They’re truly levers , in that they provide the Platonic me with mechanical advantage over my larger, messier self.
Duncan Sabien • The Levers of the Soul
if i'd had more agency when I was younger,
I would have acted on some truly terrible decisions that I may never have recovered from
...which makes me suspicious of agency as the latest all-good panacea
I would have acted on some truly terrible decisions that I may never have recovered from
...which makes me suspicious of agency as the latest all-good panacea
Rudra Dakini • Tweet
thread
Agency is the skill that built the world around you, an all-purpose life intensifier that lets you make your corner of it more like what you want it to be, whether that’s professional, relational, aesthetic, whatever. Build a better mousetrap. Have an enviable marriage. Start a country. No one is born with it, everyone can learn it, and it’s never... See more
Cate Hall • How to Be More Agentic
You could theoretically change your life at any moment. Move here, date that person, work on that startup, write that blog, dye your hair, adopt a dog. Should I stay, should I go? I don’t know if this agency is freedom or burden. Perhaps all the best things are both.
Nixtwitter.comreminds me of the charles broskoski quote that goes something like... and when nobody waits for you at night, and when nobody calls you in the morning - do you call that freedom or loneliness?