How to spot high agency people (updated list):

1. You can never guess their opinion - The boxer who writes poetry. The grandmother obsessed with the history of war. The beauty queen who reads Nietzsche. If their beliefs don't line up with their stereotypes, they've exercised agency.

2. Weird teenage hobbies - Teenage years are the hardest time to go against social pressures. If they can go against the crowd as a teenager, they can go against the crowd as an adult.

3. Treadmill energy - If you meet with them when you're tired and defeated, you leave the room ready to run a marathon on a treadmill with max incline.

4. The golden question - If you woke up in a 3rd world jail cell and could only call one person, who would you call? That’s the highest agency person you know.

5. Immigrant mentality - If they've moved from their hometown, that's a good sign. If they've moved from their home country, that's an even greater sign. It takes agency to spot you're in the wrong place, resourcefulness to operationalise a move and a growth mindset to start from zero in a new location.

6. Honest to your face, nice behind your back - The social incentives are to be nice to people's faces and gossip behind their backs. To do the opposite requires agency because they're swimming against the social tide.

7. Quit something of prestige - The miserable management consultant who breaks free from their golden handcuffs to become a stand-up comedian has to overcome momentum, social shame and sunk cost fallacy. The high agency person lives many lives and isn’t afraid to reinvent themselves — regardless of the perceived social cost.

8. They don’t trust. They verify - A low agency trap is to be hypnotized by groupthink. High agency people refuse to passively download the current thing without first verifying it for themselves: ‍

• “They say” —> Who is they?

• "Science says” —> What is the science? Can I see the primary sources?

• ”Misinformation” —> What is your theory of knowledge?

9. Self-taught learning machines - Whether it’s learning to play their favourite song on the Saxophone or deconstructing how 3D printers work — they start from zero and use agency to climb up the knowledge ladder.

10. They question the question - Before rushing to answer your question, they question whether it’s the right question to answer. They know the right answer to the wrong question is worse than no answer to the right question.

11. Specific questions, rapid action - When they ask for your help, they respect your time by asking specific questions and avoiding vague ones. To show you appreciation for the time given, they follow up in freakish speed with a thank you and evidence of the advice actioned.

12. They pet the elephant in the room - If they sense an elephant in the room, they don’t avoid it. They talk to the elephant, feed it, and ask it why it’s there. They know the elephant in the room gets smaller every time they interact with it. In five minutes, they help shrink an enormous elephant you’ve been avoiding for five years into a cute baby elephant calf you can control.