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
A popular narrative now casts all living entities as ‘machines’ built by genes, as Richard Dawkins called them. For Mayr, biology was unique among the sciences precisely because its objects of study possessed a program that encoded apparent purpose, design and agency into what they do. On this view, agency doesn’t actually manifest in the moment of... See more
Philip Ball • Life With Purpose
“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all
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I think often what’s going on with prompted agency is that it gives you permission to act, and many people aren’t good at acting without permission.
David R. MacIver • Learning to exercise agency
As the old institutions continue to crumble, the most independent minds and high-agency private networks will continue to fill the vacuum.
And We're Back... Welcome to Other Life 2024
Fuck willpower
usefulfictions.substack.com
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
Erifili Gounari • literally just do things
The most successful entrepreneurs and business people aren’t necessarily the smartest. But the managerial tracks that have fueled the upper-middle class have been fed by a credentialed cognitive elite. I expect those priorities to shift toward agency, adaptability, and demonstrated value creation.