How to be more agentic
Agency ("manifest determination to make things happen") is a learnable skill, not an innate trait. It involves finding real edges — actions others avoid because they are annoying or low-status — and crossing the necessary discomfort.
Practices
- Court rejection deliberately to calibrate what is reasonable and to decouple "no" from dejection.
- Seek real, often anonymous, feedback (remove social friction; put the link where people can find it easily).
- Increase surface area for luck by meeting widely; relevance is a weak predictor of usefulness.
- Assume traits and skills are learnable (agency, charisma, etc.) and follow the boring plan: study + practice.
- Embrace the moat of low status when learning; being visibly bad is required for rapid progress.
- Protect against burnout; reduction in agency is an early warning sign. Boundaries and rest are high-agency moves.