Live data from Hacker News

How to Be More Agentic

usefulfictions.substack.com

91–100 of 209 posts

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#92
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The very definition of the word luck goes against what you’re saying. “success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions.” This is a saying that sounds good, but makes no sense. For example, how do you change your luck of getting a coin to flip 90% of the time on tails? So you would say that one was lucky if they flipped a coin 10 times and nine times out of 10 It landed on tails w…

You can’t control the outcome of the coin flip, but you can control how many times you flip the coin. Increasing the surface area of luck is about fostering opportunities to flip a coin Just simple stuff like showing up to work every day. Going to social events. Networking. Taking classes. These will increase the opportunities you have to flip the coin. Thinking there’s a fixed number of flips in life is false and re…

> You can’t control the outcome of the coin flip,

That’s my point. That’s my only point. The outcome is still always every time going to depend on luck. Because you can flip that coin 100 times and it could land on heads every time when you wanted tails. Is it unlikely? Yes, is it impossible? No.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#93
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#94

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.

Yes but self confidence works against all this when it doesn’t come with awareness and humility around what you don’t know. You need self skepticism about opinions and new knowledge but confidence around ability to perform actions.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#95
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can learn anything you want, but really wanting is the hardest part.

I think actually following through over time is the hard part. Wanting to do something is easy.

Sustained motivation is just a matter of degree of want. If you want something enough you will do it.

At least that's my premise.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can, just throw the coin again until it lands the way you want. Oh, I didn’t realize life is that simple. I can just keep doing things until they turn out the way I want.

There's a glimpse there, beneath the deprecating sarcasm, of beginning to understand the point of the article.

I’m saying you don’t even understand what Cate is talking about because even Cate agrees with me:

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

“ Cate views her own life through a frame of responsibility: she takes responsibility for what happens to her. At the same time, she is genuinely not proud, and genuinely doesn’t think she’s better than anyone else. She credits luck for her good fortune and unusual attributes more than anything else, and is compassionate and curious toward everyone we meet. This is, I think, what sticks with me most.”

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#97

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...

What is your purpose with these posts?

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#98
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cate believe success is all about luck. She said it herself. https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/things-you-learn-dating-c...

What is your purpose with these posts?

My point is to help you not forget your compassion. All this talk about agency is nothing if you don’t have the luck to go along with it. So if you see someone who’s homeless, don’t talk to them about their agency. Just help them.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#99
post #46
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.

That in turn reminds me of a British reality TV series from the 2000s called "Faking It". Participants were trained by experts in a specific skill that they had no existing knowledge of, and then they had to convince others that they were genuinely skilled in that area, which they almost always did. It was "fake it 'till you make it" condensed into a single episode. Loved that show!

Interesting how different the things we're reminded of are: I was thinking of a maxim Feynman liked, "What one fool can do, another can." (Not sure if it's original to him; my memory suggests it might've been from one of the calculus book he read as a teen.)

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#100
post #91

[flagged]

You got flagged bc you’re a jerk about it. For what it’s worth. If you come to disagree and have a civil discussion that’s typically fine. But your posts are condescending and needlessly inflammatory.

Dude, I’m on the edges. You know that uncomfortable place where no one likes to go. Just because you don’t like what I’m saying doesn’t mean I’m being a jerk about it. And if you can point out anything specific in a comment that was flagged, I would appreciate it.
Post reply on HN