Agency

you are a self-modifying machine, a particle with partial control over its own future, and it pays to know what all the buttons do. I’ve heard many people describe to me what sound like levers in their own souls, but I know very few people who realize that they can pull on them deliberately, if they want to.

Agency and self-efficacy are deeply intertwined, like the will to act (agency) and the belief that you can succeed (self-efficacy). They reinforce each other in a feedback loop, but they aren’t the same thing.

How They Influence Each Other

1. Self-Efficacy Fuels Agency
   
   
   • If you believe you can accomplish something, you're more likely to take action .
   
   
   • Exa

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Value capture occurs when an agent’s values are rich and subtle; they enter a social environment that presents simplified — typically quantified — versions of those val-ues; and those simplified articulations come to dominate their practical reasoning. Examples include becoming motivated by FitBit’s step counts, Twitter Likes and Re-tweets,... See more

The kind of agency that comes from knowing how to win friends and get things done is important and should be learned. But without aligning it with wisdom—and without fellow travelers on the path toward less foolishness—greater foolishness often follows.