It goes without saying, but the willingness to look stupid is a big part of having agency. “Do non-obvious things” sounds easy in theory, but looks like wearing a clown suit and becoming a lonely dissenter in practice.
I suspect more people (including yours truly) would be agentic if they could get over the fear of looking stupid, but it’s a complex problem so agency will remain the preserve of a minority. That said, it’s possible to progressively build agency by starting off with low-stakes projects and increasing the difficulty and stakes (something like rejection therapy could work).
It goes without saying, but the willingness to look stupid is a big part of having agency. “Do non-obvious things” sounds easy in theory, but looks like wearing a clown suit and becoming a lonely dissenter in practice.
I suspect more people (including yours truly) would be agentic if they could get over the fear of looking stupid, but it’s a complex problem so agency will remain the preserve of a minority. That said, it’s possible to progressively build agency by starting off with low-stakes projects and increasing the difficulty and stakes (something like rejection therapy could work).