Andrej Karpathy’s X post about agency struck me. I used to center my decisions around optimizing for intelligence, or the demonstration of it, believing that was the most efficient way to move towards success. I still think one needs some base level of intelligence to achieve great things, but the marginal returns diminish fast. Agency, I’ve come to believe, is the more underrated trait, at least in my academic bubble, where it’s rarely even discussed. This post is my attempt to pin down what it is and derive some actionable advice for myself.
What is agency
One sentence: agency is one’s belief that they can, and the ability to, actively influence their environment.
Synonyms of agentic: proactive, autonomous, independent.
Antonyms of agentic: dependent, submissive, passive.
It’s not the same as confidence. Confidence is your opinion on yourself, while agency is an intrinsic belief that drives your day-to-day actions.
From Karpathy’s post:
Agency, as a personality trait, refers to an individual’s capacity to take initiative, make decisions, and exert control over their actions and environment. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive—someone with high agency doesn’t just let life happen to them; they shape it.
Why agency is scarce
We’re educated to value intelligence over agency, so we underrate its importance. If we don’t value it as much, we won’t deliberately seek to improve it. I think US education does have some mentions of agency, but we are rarely given the chance to practice it. We are taught to be good problem solvers, but we are seldom taught how to ask the next interesting question.
Our inherent laziness also contributes to this scarcity. It’s much easier to live reactively than proactively. We love to avoid confrontations and decision anxiety by letting the environment decide how we live.
Why agency is rewarded
Because it’s scarce, agentic people do things most people won’t: cold emailing strangers, asking for a raise, switching careers. Many highly rewarded jobs demand exactly this, and supply and demand does the rest.
Leadership also comes with agency. People love being told what to do so they don’t have to think about it.
Agentic people become a people magnet. I was fortunate to speak to Ali Partovi about this and he said being a smart people magnet is one of the best signals for a good entrepreneur. It might just be a byproduct of high agency. I’ve repeatedly seen this persona among people my age that I consider successful.
I believe agentic people are also more introspective. They are willing to change themselves and get rid of the limiting factors that keep them where they are. They proactively seek positive change and are thus more likely to move to a higher place.
This correlation between agency and success seems consistent across centuries, more so than any domain expertise. To be rigorous, I can’t rule out survivorship bias here.
Actionable advice
Adjust for your bias towards inaction. Every time you have to make a decision between action and inaction, add weight towards the proactive option.
Look for opportunities to practice agency. Take leadership positions, chime in to the decision-making process, and try to be the initiator in your friend group.
Make friends with highly agentic people. You will be pulled towards the time-weighted mean of the friends you hang out with.