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How to Be More Agentic

usefulfictions.substack.com

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Re: How to Be More Agentic

#51

Post by rco8786 »

samstave wrote: post #18

> “manifest determination to make things happen.” In my family, my mother always called this as "Reality Bending" (no relation to airbender) -- but they referred to Jobs' "reality distortion field" My father had this to great effect. My brother has it to a certain degree. I used to have it in spades when I was younger - but I have become "will-power" complacent in my older years, which snowballs into to depression. I…

Your Windows 95 story definitely resonates. I installed Windows XP so many times that I had not only the pirated key memorized, but I would start moving my mouse toward the next button before it had even appeared on screen. People used to be impressed at how fast I could find the "Eastern Time Zone" option in the combo box.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#52

Post by LargeWu »

drakonka wrote: post #38
nick__m wrote: post #20

Assume everything is learnable This made me think of late grandmother who used to say : "c'est faite par du mondes" which roughly expand to "a person did/learned/discovered that so there is no a prioi reason that I cannot do so myself". That's the greatest value she passed unto me. When I feel that I cannot do something, I think about that phrase and persevere.

I always assumed everyone assumed everything was learnable. Realizing this (i.e., that being everyone's default belief) might not be the case is kind of blowing my mind a little right now.

Ask ten people if they can draw, and half will say "No, I'm not artistic" or "I'm not creative", as though it were an innate quality.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#53

Post by Podgajski »

whstl wrote: post #29
Podgajski wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s with all the woo hoo here on HN? The very definition of the word luck goes against your “frame it on the wall” feely good saying. “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.” but I guess you’re also saying that people who get cancer are just letting it happen? Maybe they should’ve investigated the edges. You see there are two types of luck, good luck and bad luck. Ho…

Respectfully, I find your definition of luck more "woo woo" than everyone else's. I might be misunderstanding your point, but other people are treating luck as mere chance or odds, while you seem to me to be treating it as something binary that sounds a bit like "destiny" or "predeterminism".

Yes, at any point in time, you can be lucky or unlucky.

By changing the odds of an outcome, you’re not changing your luck, you’re changing the odds. Even having 99.999% certainty you can still be unlucky and land in that percent. Probability is not deterministic. And what determines the outcome? Luck.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#54

Post by Podgajski »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #39
inglor_cz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few people are constantly unlucky, like, day after day after day. Most of our lives are stochastic enough that luck and bad luck, on average, balance out. A random walk in both directions. "Oh, and being rich helps your agency quite a lot." - Yeah, if you can manage your wealth, but if a stupid person somehow gets a lot of money, my bet would be on them losing those in spectacular way within a few years.

> Few people are constantly unlucky, But quite a few people feel constantly unlucky. And for some this distorts their behaviour in such a way as to make them even unluckier.

[flagged]

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#55

Post by dclowd9901 »

Podgajski wrote: post #36
kevindamm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The confusion, I think, is that many people see opportunity as luck, especially so when that opportunity was grasped by someone else. Also even if luck is a stable quantity, it's helped by attempts at success.

No, you’re wrong, luck isn’t helped by anything. It’s just luck. You can change all the opportunities you want but if you have bad luck you have bad luck if you have good luck you have good luck. Other words, the odds don’t care about your luck.

You keep missing it.

If I go to a job interview and at the end of it, the person says “ok, I’m gonna flip this coin — guess the outcome and you get the job”. I guess — I miss.

Then they say “want to guess again?”

Repeat until I get the job.

Probability has an effect on outcomes, but only insofar as the chances you’re willing to take. Luck is just an observation of a single outcome.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#56

Post by Scubabear68 »

nick__m wrote: post #20

Assume everything is learnable This made me think of late grandmother who used to say : "c'est faite par du mondes" which roughly expand to "a person did/learned/discovered that so there is no a prioi reason that I cannot do so myself". That's the greatest value she passed unto me. When I feel that I cannot do something, I think about that phrase and persevere.

I found this out late in life working on an environmental cause. We were all volunteers and had limited money, so I started learning about pipelines and regulations and legal concepts, etc etc. If you have the right kind of mind, it very empowering to be able to step into a new field and really learn it and work it.

The flip side of this is that not everyone’s brain works this way. In fact, I’d say the vast majority can’t do this. The biggest mistake an autodidact can make is assuming other people can learn like they do. But if you have the gift, use it and explore it and it will likely be highly rewarding to your life.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#57

Post by FredPret »

Podgajski wrote: post #15
FredPret wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a losing attitude. To make the most of life, you’ve got to take charge of it, luck or no.

Who says I’m not taking charge of life? I just know the role that luck has to play in life as well. That way when I’m not lucky I don’t keep all that blame on myself or when other people are unlucky I don’t blame them for their failures. Because who the hell knows?

My apologies - not calling you a loser.

Just saying that blaming one’s own or other people’s success on luck will always lead to suboptimal outcomes for the blamer. Good and bad events will happen one way or another, and it’s up to each one of us to make the most of it.

Therefore, if you think luck is the main determinant of outcomes, you’ll try much less hard.

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