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How to Be More Agentic

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Re: How to Be More Agentic

#161

Post by Scubabear68 »

drakonka wrote: post #134
Scubabear68 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I don't think I can believe that the majority can't do this without some evidence. But regardless, I'm really curious what makes you think that? What in your opinion would be stopping them, other than maybe just not believing they can or bothering to try (which imo has nothing to do with whether they _can_)?

Based on the environmental and community based work I’ve done, and also my experience at school. I pick up most things on my own, and always suffered in a classroom environment.

But most people I know and have worked with are the opposite. They have real trouble picking up new subjects without a teacher guiding them through it and formal courses.

Anecdotal I know, but the true autodidacts I’ve encountered are rare in general terms. That said, a LOT of technology people can largely self-teach, and I think a much higher percentage of HN readers can learn new subjects quickly compared to the general population.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#162

Post by collin_of_this »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #110

This article really spoke to me, but, ironically, I am concerned about my ability to put it into practice. I feel like there are areas of my life I have extreme agency over and others I have no agency over. I hate it because the areas I feel I lack agency in run counter to my sense of self. Things I struggle to do don't feel like things I should struggle to do. I wonder if this is something I learned when I was young…

Perhaps agency is less one single 'meta-skill' than a bunch of domain specific 'micro-skills'. E.g., strategic thinking in a tech company leadership roll is one skill (or set of skills), strategic thinking in the context of a personal relationship is another skill (or set of skills); managing fear in the context of public speaking is one skill (or set of skills), managing fear in the context of driving is another skill (or set of skills).

Sometimes skills that seem superficially similar are surprisingly non-transferable and context specific.

Ultimately, I think that the most generally applicable advice is getting feedback from others, getting an outside view, blindspot fuzzing, etc. Bottlenecks are usually not the obvious things, because usually the obvious things have been tried, without success. [That is, until the obvious thing is so obvious that everyone assumes it has been tried before without actually trying it. In which case it is again non-obvious!]

Personally, I have found that in personal relationships, a fairly effective strategy to get "unstuck" is to take actions that seem bizarre, unimaginable, or otherwise far outside the distribution of my ordinary responses. I do this because usually if I feel stuck, or there is some unpleasant dynamic, then a part of that dynamic that keeps it going is my actions, which are based in what I tend to do. If I find myself in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th iteration of something unpleasant that I feel like has played out before, I'll do something far outside the distribution of my ordinary actions, and it has a much better chance of getting me unstuck (though, it still might only be a 1%-10% chance of getting me unstuck per random action).

Perhaps there is some sort of general algorithm in that for getting unstuck. A sort of exhaustive process of elimination, with some sort of outside generativity, and some feedback loops grounded in reality, that is one's best chance at escaping local optima.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#164

Post by coldtea »

drakonka wrote: post #44
jvanderbot wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Agreed, I've always believed you can learn anything you want. The realization I was talking about was the one where maybe that's not the default assumption for everyone.

Of course it's not the default assumption.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#165

Post by johnchristopher »

nick__m wrote: post #155
d-lisp wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably mean "c'est fait par du monde" or maybe that's some way of mocking french language that I am not aware of !?

it's the way it's spoken where I reside.

I am curious now, without revealing too much, can you give the phonetics ?

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#166

Post by overengineer »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #110

This article really spoke to me, but, ironically, I am concerned about my ability to put it into practice. I feel like there are areas of my life I have extreme agency over and others I have no agency over. I hate it because the areas I feel I lack agency in run counter to my sense of self. Things I struggle to do don't feel like things I should struggle to do. I wonder if this is something I learned when I was young…

I am feeling the same way. It makes me get confused about myself a lot. I think it is ok that, I can fear from or fail at things that are easy for other people while something that is hard for the most people can be trivial for me.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#167

Post by FredPret »

Podgajski wrote: post #158
FredPret wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what someone like Viktor Frankl would think of all this.

On the average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for existence; they were prepared to use every means, honest and otherwise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of their friends, in order to save themselves. We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles - whatever one may choose to call them - we know: t…

I'm frequently astonished by the sheer force of some people's desire to be unhappy.

Viktor Frankl is an amazing example of someone taking an absolutely shit situation and applying some agency to it to make it better. My entire point is even he had good and bad luck, and chose not to focus on that, but on his zone of control, his agency.

If it is in fact your contention that Viktor Frankl - Viktor Frankl - was lucky, then there's really no point in any further discussion.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#169

Post by dchichkov »

brnt wrote: post #80
steveBK123 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually work for a guy like this now and at first I didn't quite get what he was doing, but I really like it now. He comes from a non-technical background but can code enough to be dangerous now. He loves talking to experts in every facet of what we do, and just start from the most basic foundational questions. He has absolutely no ego about embarrassing himself by the basics of questions he asks and no shame abou…

> You also start to realize how narrow and sometimes shallow expertise is Thanks for putting this in such clear words. What I would really like to learn is not to be ticked off about seeing this. I get annoyed when somebody is pawning their expertise of as something grand while I think it's quite limited, and often, of course, so limited that they can't even conceive of the space outside their limits. I find my natur…

I think it is fine to look at the details of what actually was achieved, see if it had an impact. In that particular case, the achievement seems to be contributing to operations to development of a new candidate COVID vaccine and putting it via a Phase-1 trial in South Africa, with the following result:

DNA SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Alveavax-V1.2) - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4645890 While safe, well tolerated, and shelf stable for >6 months at room temperature, a naked DNA SARS-CoV-2 booster candidate in doses up to 8 mg administered intradermally or subcutaneously, as well as Janssen Ad26.COV2.S comparator, did not significantly increase BA.2 antibody titers in a preimmunized, largely pre-infected population.

Not a breakthrough, but it is productive. Likely worth the resources that were spent on this. So it is just good job, keep on going. There's really no point of being negative or annoyed.

What is not clear to me, is if the author is applying herself in the place where she has an edge and could be most impactful. A world class poker player and Yale Law School grad potentially can do well in politics. Upholding democracy seems like a kind of annoying job that Yale grads should be on.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#170

Post by drakonka »

Scubabear68 wrote: post #161
drakonka wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I can believe that the majority can't do this without some evidence. But regardless, I'm really curious what makes you think that? What in your opinion would be stopping them, other than maybe just not believing they can or bothering to try (which imo has nothing to do with whether they _can_)?

Based on the environmental and community based work I’ve done, and also my experience at school. I pick up most things on my own, and always suffered in a classroom environment. But most people I know and have worked with are the opposite. They have real trouble picking up new subjects without a teacher guiding them through it and formal courses. Anecdotal I know, but the true autodidacts I’ve encountered are rare in…

Thanks for elaborating. I think I realize now that we are talking about different things. I wasn't distinguishing between learning styles (e.g., guided or self taught), but more thinking of the ability to step into a new field and learn about it using whatever method works best for each individual. I think I understand now!
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