Be a high agency person
The most thought-provoking article I read in recent times was George Mack's post on high agency. (I stumbled on it thanks to pam's list of valuable pieces of writing!)
Mack's article is a call to action — be a high agency person and make a difference in the world. But what is high agency?
What "high agency" means
Mack uses a simple scenario to convey the gist of high agency:
You wake up in a 3rd world jail cell. You’re only allowed to call one person you know to get you out of there.
Who do you call? Why did you choose this person? What is it about them that made you pick up the phone?
This person you picked has something. A spark. A je ne sais quoi. That ‘something' is high agency.
This is a hypothetical question that makes a lot of sense. Who would you call to get you out of a bad situation? If you’re Batman, the answer is yourself — remember the pit from *The Dark Knight Rises (2012)? That dude is the ultimate high agency person. But even in the real world we’ve had and have high agency people too — the Wright brothers and James Cameron, to name a few. At the end of the day, the world needs more high agency people to help solve the seemingly intractable problems that plague it.
What are key qualities of a high agency person?
This is what Mack says:
High agency can be a confusing idea to understand because it’s not just one idea. It’s a combination of three distinct skills rarely found together: Clear thinking, Bias to action, Disagreeability
High agency is like a tricycle. If you remove one of the wheels, it stops working.
It's impossible to imagine someone breaking you out of a 3rd world jail cell without all three.
If they can't think clearly, they will charge ahead with the first bad plan that pops into their head.
If they lack a bias for action, they'll never move their ideas from theory into the real world.
If they aren't disagreeable, they'll quit and conform when someone in authority tells them "No".
Simply put:
- Think clearly
- Act, rather than not
- Be disagreeable
I find Mack’s article inspiring even though in his view, the majority of people in the world as “low agency”. This is because he talks about how one can grow into a high agency person, with conscious and consistent effort. I think I’ve exhibit 1 or 2 high agency qualities at various points but I wonder what I or you can be capable of, if all 3 came together?
Mack’s essay goes into greater detail about how to think and act with greater agency but I think hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth is best.