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How to Be More Agentic

usefulfictions.substack.com

81–90 of 209 posts

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#81
post #74

This piece about how she lives, by her husband Sasha, is also great: https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/things-you-learn-dating-c...

Reading that it sounds like to me she’s unipolar manic. And this is coming from someone who knows about it because I have bipolar disorder.

This would also possibly describe her drug addiction If the drugs weren’t drugs that would fuel mania.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#83
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you saying that luck is positively based question. And what’s your definition of success.? I mean I put my coffee cup down on a table, do I count that as success?

You made your coffee and it doesn't taste bad. Congratulations you succeed at making good coffee!

Luckily, I was born in the 21st-century.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#84
post #73

Is agency closely related to self-confidence? Most of the points on this list seemed related to that. Not the "don't work too hard" bit, but the rest seem in the same ballpark.

I wondered the same. Seems very difficult for a person with low self-confidence to act on these recommendations.

One of the tips is assume everything is learnable - you can learn to be self-confident.

My self-confidence was in the trash during high school. In college I had a couple of experiences that gave me opportunities to learn to be confident.

The sense of difficulty is a sign of opportunity.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#85

I wish the author had included concrete examples of finding edges (and the process of finding them). I wonder if anyone here has an example from their experience?

One way is seeing if the predictions you make repeatedly come true in some domain, especially if they go against the general consensus. Is so, it means you have an edge in that domain - you see things more clearly than others or have original insights. Now think about your current predictions about that domain, and see if you can act on them somehow.

One definition of an edge is knowing something other people don't. You have to be careful not to fool yourself.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In these comments your agency is entirely aimed at negativity. In order to justify this you reframe it as realism. It's kind of like walking outside with your attention constantly focused on the fact that you might step on dog shit. If you do this, your agency is pulled away from appreciating a beautiful flower, or interchanging smiles with a pretty person, or seeing a hundred dollar bill off to the side. The fact th…

Your interpretation of my comments is negative. I’m not saying you can’t change your opportunity in life, I’m saying that if luck has anything to do with your success or failure, then it’s all based on luck, and nothing to do with what opportunities you create. It may will be that I do everything wrong in life and limit my opportunities, and still win the lottery because I tripped and fell on my face and lo and behol…

> I’m saying that if luck has anything to do with your success or failure, then it’s all based on luck, and nothing to do with what opportunities you create.

Your statement excessively (because it’s non-predictively useless) reductionist.

Yep, it’s absolute luck that that particular sperm and ovum happened to combine, that the pregnancy successfully proceeded, that you were born in a country not at war (I’m guessing), that that car didn’t run off the road and squash you when you were eight, etc. But acknowledging all that doesn’t provide any guidance.

My “woo woo” statement was literally the case: yes some incredible opportunity could sweep by and be missed because you happened to be looking the other way. And that will definitely happen — tant pis. But if you are willing to consider lucky opportunities when you are looking the other way your odds will improve.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#87
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Playing the lottery versus not playing the lottery doesn’t change your luck, it changes your odds. If two people play the lottery the same amount of times and one person wins way more than the other, You would say one person was luckier than the other.

The meaning of the word lucky has shifted over time as we stopped believing that certain people have things go their way more often than average because fate, the gods, or whatever favors them.

I had stopped believing in fate, too—until I learned that (popular astrology app) Co-Star makes heavy use of Haskell[1]. So since they got my horoscope to compile, it’s probably correct.

[1]: https://www.costarastrology.com/why-haskell

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#89

So refreshing, and timely. Diving into the moat of low status is a huge multiplier. Courting rejection is a super power because when success is explosive and non-linear, it favours the players who make the most attempts, and not the hardest ones. Timely because it's not just winter, I hit a really hard personal low over the last few months. This article reminded me that I do hard, scary, and difficult things, and my…

Cate believe success is all about luck. She said it herself.

https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/things-you-learn-dating-c...

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be a horrible society. High achievers getting zero credit. Moping losers blaming their failures on “bad luck”. Zero reason to strive for greatness because you’ll get sympathy if you fail and jealousy if you succeed. No thanks.

This tells me a lot about you as a person. Let me tell you how I would see it. High achievers, knowing that they’re successful based on lock would be more helpful to people who didn’t have good luck. This would turn out to be a more stable and even society. I guess you like the separation of wealth we’re experiencing right now?

Sadly, without a strong impetus to strive upward, there won’t be any high achievers to mooch off of or blame when things go wrong.

Everyone gets a steady stream of good luck and bad luck. Consistently sailing upstream towards success takes a lot of grit and determination, something completely lacking in the minds of those who think they’re at the mercy of their circumstances.

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