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How to Be More Agentic

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Re: How to Be More Agentic

#201

Post by giant_fern »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #70

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.

Self-confidence is helpful alongside agency, but I think it's a totally different concept.

Agency is about self-awareness and realizing that you have a choice. Lack of agency means going along with the default, societal script or what is handed to you even if it is not a good option for you.

One example is dropping out of a university program, even if you are capable of graduating. There is a strong social expectation that you finish, but maybe you don't like it, or your time is better spent elsewhere. Agency is that realization that you can choose.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#202

Post by sn9 »

twbarber wrote: post #118
sn9 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guy will be a staff engineer soon.

Is this tongue in cheek? I appreciate and try to emulate this trait, but worry it comes off as politic-ing.

A little, but it also wouldn't surprise me at all.

This trait is what I associate with people who quickly develop deep knowledge and impressive breadth.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#203

Post by drekipus »

nick__m wrote: post #200
marcosdumay wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, dismissing mental and health problems can make people not seek treatment, further increase them, or at more extreme cases even physically hurt people. Dismissing social problems can have the equivalent of all those consequences, and even worse ones.

Where did he dismiss people problems ? If someone want to do something enough, he should be compelled to seek help to overcome his limitations. Comment like your encourages learned helplessness, which to me is a lot more dangerous than what he said !

Full agreeance.

I grew up poor, had stints of homelessness, and all my friends/relatives came from the same background.

Learned helplessness is one of, if not the biggest, issues facing socially disadvantaged people. Money, counselling, temporary housing - all of this is moot and useless if the person retains a poor mindset.

Conversely, if there's a positive mindset, then they are most likely going to seek out those opportunities and use them to their advantage.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#204

Post by rmwaite »

coldtea wrote: post #164
drakonka wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why “of course”? I too took a long time to discover this wasn’t the case. I don’t think it’s as obvious as your wording makes it sound.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#205

Post by coldtea »

rmwaite wrote: post #204
coldtea wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it's not the default assumption.

Why “of course”? I too took a long time to discover this wasn’t the case. I don’t think it’s as obvious as your wording makes it sound.

Surely you've heard countless "I just can't do math", "I can't draw to save my life", "I don't have talent for X", "Piano teacher tried but I just have no talent for it", "Wow, you must be very talented for doing Y", no?

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#206

Post by blueyes »

takinola wrote: post #59

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?

She talked about physical reads as an edge and gave two aspects of finding the edge.

a) she put herself in a room with her adversaries, the other poker players, and paid attention to how their behavior correlated with their hands

b) she brought up what she noticed and was discounted by other players.

These are two excellent components of an edge:

1) primary data and repeated experience

2) watching the consensus reject that data

Data scientists go through a stage called EDA, or exploratory data analysis, where they just play around and look at the shape of data. From that, they can begin to form conjectures and dig further to validate or refute their hypothesis. Cate was doing that IRL.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#207

Post by borroka »

jvanderbot wrote: post #40
drakonka wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

> You can learn anything you want

Without any quantifier/qualifier, say that "you can learn anything you want" is meaningless. If you are not disabled (broadly speaking), you can learn to run, where running is a way of continuously moving your body in which for some time no foot is touching the ground (marching/walking = one foot is touching the ground always). But, can you learn to run the 100 m dash in under 12/13/14 seconds?

Sure, anybody can learn to draw, where drawing means moving the ink from pen to paper, but can you draw something that is objectively good? And if yes, how long will it take for someone like me, who has close to no talent for it?

And so on.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#208

Post by kirso »

adfisgnio1234 wrote: post #140

I think this post does a great job of arguing against its own thesis. This woman was apparently the rank one poker player in the world. She obviously has great natural ability and works hard at what she does. So why doesn't she stick with anything for longer than a few years? Why has she had an impressive start to four or five different careers without following through on any of them to real greatness? She believes,…

For some the real greatness is to be involved in a more than one discipline.

Re: How to Be More Agentic

#209

Post by broscillator »

Podgajski wrote: post #96
broscillator wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Cate highlights positive aspects. Again, your posts focus every time on negativity. This is the point that I'm trying to get across. You talked about cancer, about blame and failure, "doing everything wrong in life and still winning the lottery" (winning the lottery isn't inherently positive, because it's what you do with it that matters).

It is not luck that shifts your mind to highlight these negative aspects, that is where agency takes place. Take care.

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