Agency

Different academic disciplines have different takes on the word “agency”:

• Philosophy sees agency as the capacity to act intentionally and rationally to bring about change in the world.


• Psychology views agency as a person’s capacity to exert control over their environment and experience a sense of ownership over their actions.


• Sociology understands

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And I hear all sorts of interesting worries and anxieties from people. Lots of people say something like, “Oh, I would like to be more playful and passionate, but that’s not what the world cares about. The world only cares about what is popular, what is controversial, what makes money.” To which I say – so what? You don’t have to care about what... See more

First, be clear about your intentions. For myself, I want to maximize learning and improving myself, and minimize “zombie entertainment”. This is when we’re caught in a pattern of consuming from a firehose feed for entertainment, without intentionality. It’s a fake flow state: time passes quickly and the world fades away, but there’s no cognitive... See more

Have you seen those tweets saying things like “there are people with half your skills and intelligence living out your dreams, just because they put themselves out there and didn’t overthink it”? It’s definitely true. When I observe my own experience and analyse why things worked out, I can tell you that it wasn’t because of any business skills or... See more

Reminder that a sense of agency means feeling like you have control over your actions and their consequences . I think people tend to forget that second part; owning your mistakes and their consequences is extremely difficult, which might be a motivating factor for some people to adopt victim complexes. (A victim complex is learned!)

Isn’t it wild how much power our words have?

How easily they can cast spells on people, how they have ripple effects in all directions?

And yet how often we shy away from using them, even when all they would do is bring more beauty into the world?

So what are you waiting for?