There’s a very useful set of intellectual gestures here:
Notice that something annoys you, or generally seems imperfect, in some way
Imagine what the world would be like if there was a tool or technique to make it less annoying.
Investigate whether anyone has ever solved the problem before, and how
Before buying a tool to solve a problem, think hard about whether you could make the tool yourself. Maybe try making it yourself, if the stakes are low enough, and then buy the good version if you learn that you really do want it.
I sum it up as “YOU ARE A HUMAN BEING. HUMANS USE TOOLS”.
My examples are small, and you might not think all of them count, but here are some things I’ve done that sound kind of like what you’re asking for:
When learning rope splicing, I wanted a fid. Fids online were more expensive than I wanted to buy for a potentially brief interest, so I thought hard about what they actually do (make space between strands of rope with the pointy end, lead the rope through that space with the hollow end) and made a thing that does that by taping a chopstick to a drinking straw. The other thing a fid does is measure a certain multiple of the rope’s diameter, but that was easily solved by drawing a mark on the homemade tool at the correct distance from the end.
I used to think that you had to buy the clothes you wanted already made, but I’ve gradually gotten better at deciding what I want and then either modifying something to be it or making it from scratch. I frequently modify patterns so that things have more pockets than they’re supposed to. Did you know that you can add or enlarge pockets without sewing at all? Get the strongest fusible interfacing you can find, put it where the seams should go, and press [iron] it in place. Seams glued like this aren’t as strong as sewn ones, but some people are needlessly intimidated by the concept of learning to thread a needle, knot the thread, and put it in and out of a couple layers of fabric a few times.
Depending on your cultural background, it may be more agentic to DIY household projects that others would hire someone for, or it may be more agentic to hire a contractor to do stuff which others would either DIY or leave un-done.
In my house, there was a doorway between the kitchen/dining space and laundry room. I disliked having an open doorway there because the washing machine and dryer are loud, but for a long time I assumed that was just how things had to be. Eventually I realized that I could just go buy a pre-hung door the right size and install it, which I did and am very glad of. (try Habitat For Humanity first for pre-hung doors, and factor a trim kit for both sides into the total cost of the project, if you’re doing this)
I’ve built a lot of custom bookshelves over the years. You really don’t have to be much of a carpenter; as long as you pick nice enough materials that they’re not leaking pitch or giving you splinters, and you assemble it well enough to not fall down, it’ll do the job. I’m also not shy about cutting holes in the backs of bookshelves when they would otherwise block an electrical outlet or something else small but important.
I’d argue that it’s agentic in a potentially harmful way to uninstall smoke detectors when they annoy you sufficiently. If you’re having that problem, replace the ion ones with photoelectric ones. There’s a Technology Connections video on youtube explaining it if you want more info there.
In airports (LAX comes to mind), sometimes you can get outdoors after security by visiting the smoking area! I don’t smoke; I just like fresh air and sunlight. But sometimes the “smoking area” is the best place to get that.
You might like social engineering content. I have occasionally bluffed my way past security personnel to get things done, and even (when highly confident that they were incorrect) ignored them saying “you can’t go there” while obviously making no attempt to stop me, just to see what would happen. They did not stop me, nor summon anyone to remove me from the area where they claimed I “couldn’t” be.
It’s highly agentic but probably immoral by most standards to abuse return policies and use places with generous policies as cheap or free rental options.
Identifying and exploiting certain personal finance loopholes may count: Compare spending HSA funds with the provided debit card to making the same purchases on a credit card, reimbursing them from the HSA, and keeping the rewards or sign-up bonus from the credit card company.
Did you know you can go buy a massage chair, which pretty much looks like a regular chair, for a few hundred bucks? Guests are often amazed that I have a massage chair in my living room but I spent less on it than one might on a top-of-the-line recliner.
Have you done the exercise of watching your internal monologue for a day and noting every time you think you “can’t” do something, and then transforming those into “prefer not to” by identifying some ways you could accomplish it but choose not to because the tradeoffs aren’t worth it.
“I can’t fly” becomes “I don’t like the hassle of going to an airport unless I’m going to a specific destination, and the risks of current jetpack technology outweigh the rewards, and I could go paragliding or wingsuiting in one of those wind tunnels if I booked an appointment, and I guess if I wanted to allocate the funds I could take pilot lessons”.
“I can’t defy gravity” becomes “Earth’s gravity applies to me because I’m so close to the planet, but if I dedicated my entire life to becoming a billionaire at all costs I could probably do some space tourism. Actually humans do a lot of things that make g-forces go other directions, like roller coasters and those carnival things with a spinning room, which are all things I could go to if I’m patient or build if I’m risk-tolerant. And I can make things pretend to defy gravity by using magnets or tensegrity principles or static electricity or very powerful fans or all sorts of other tricks.”
Have you done the exercise of watching your internal monologue for a day and noting every time you think you “can’t” do something, and then transforming those into “prefer not to” by identifying some ways you could accomplish it but choose not to because the tradeoffs aren’t worth it.
I think I’ve started to do a bit without really knowing that I’m doing it. Just like I cringe (and have cringed even before I read the Sequences) when someone says “I’ll try to do [something],” I’ve started to develop a slight revulsion to “I can’t.” This instinct not nearly as strong as I want it to be and I don’t think of all the possibilities that could happen.
Well, thanks for the brain-worm, I’ve been viewing my own behavior through the lens of “am I being agentic about this?” all day =)
You mentioned in passing the theme that agentic-looking outcomes arise from disregarding unnecessary constraints. In watching myself, I notice that my agentic-looking behaviors and accomplishments often arise from rigidly applying an explicit list of gestures-worth-trying, even when I don’t expect them to work.
For instance, I dislike looking at labels on most stuff, so I devote a moderate amount of time to removing unneeded ones. I’ve developed a checklist of techniques which sometimes get sticky stuff un-stuck from other stuff. The list includes water, acetone, heat, paint stripper, sandpaper, magic eraser, razor blades, and other varyingly destructive techniques. I’ve trained myself to consider it a rule that before I just tolerate looking at an unsightly sticker, I should rule out each intervention on the list. By being inflexible about this approach, I manage to remove all kinds of annoying stickers that I didn’t expect would really come off.
Sometimes I also get novel results by going down the list of all the tools I have access to and considering how each one would impact the problem if I used it. It’s honestly pretty great how much force a single smallish human can exert with a manual cable winch, a cheater bar if the winch’s handle is too short for good leverage, and some carabiners and lifting slings rated for 10,000lbs...
Oh, and if you stick stickers directly to the back of your laptop’s screen, consider first putting down either a single full-sized sticker or a protective case. That way when the machine eventually dies you can frame or keep the collection.
There’s a very useful set of intellectual gestures here:
Notice that something annoys you, or generally seems imperfect, in some way
Imagine what the world would be like if there was a tool or technique to make it less annoying.
Investigate whether anyone has ever solved the problem before, and how
Before buying a tool to solve a problem, think hard about whether you could make the tool yourself. Maybe try making it yourself, if the stakes are low enough, and then buy the good version if you learn that you really do want it.
I sum it up as “YOU ARE A HUMAN BEING. HUMANS USE TOOLS”.
My examples are small, and you might not think all of them count, but here are some things I’ve done that sound kind of like what you’re asking for:
When learning rope splicing, I wanted a fid. Fids online were more expensive than I wanted to buy for a potentially brief interest, so I thought hard about what they actually do (make space between strands of rope with the pointy end, lead the rope through that space with the hollow end) and made a thing that does that by taping a chopstick to a drinking straw. The other thing a fid does is measure a certain multiple of the rope’s diameter, but that was easily solved by drawing a mark on the homemade tool at the correct distance from the end.
I used to think that you had to buy the clothes you wanted already made, but I’ve gradually gotten better at deciding what I want and then either modifying something to be it or making it from scratch. I frequently modify patterns so that things have more pockets than they’re supposed to. Did you know that you can add or enlarge pockets without sewing at all? Get the strongest fusible interfacing you can find, put it where the seams should go, and press [iron] it in place. Seams glued like this aren’t as strong as sewn ones, but some people are needlessly intimidated by the concept of learning to thread a needle, knot the thread, and put it in and out of a couple layers of fabric a few times.
Depending on your cultural background, it may be more agentic to DIY household projects that others would hire someone for, or it may be more agentic to hire a contractor to do stuff which others would either DIY or leave un-done.
In my house, there was a doorway between the kitchen/dining space and laundry room. I disliked having an open doorway there because the washing machine and dryer are loud, but for a long time I assumed that was just how things had to be. Eventually I realized that I could just go buy a pre-hung door the right size and install it, which I did and am very glad of. (try Habitat For Humanity first for pre-hung doors, and factor a trim kit for both sides into the total cost of the project, if you’re doing this)
I’ve built a lot of custom bookshelves over the years. You really don’t have to be much of a carpenter; as long as you pick nice enough materials that they’re not leaking pitch or giving you splinters, and you assemble it well enough to not fall down, it’ll do the job. I’m also not shy about cutting holes in the backs of bookshelves when they would otherwise block an electrical outlet or something else small but important.
I’d argue that it’s agentic in a potentially harmful way to uninstall smoke detectors when they annoy you sufficiently. If you’re having that problem, replace the ion ones with photoelectric ones. There’s a Technology Connections video on youtube explaining it if you want more info there.
Thanks! These kind of things are what I’m looking for. I appreciate the maker perspective.
I’ve fixed multiple appliances with some good old copper wire (dishwasher and toilet).
Similarly:
In airports (LAX comes to mind), sometimes you can get outdoors after security by visiting the smoking area! I don’t smoke; I just like fresh air and sunlight. But sometimes the “smoking area” is the best place to get that.
You might like social engineering content. I have occasionally bluffed my way past security personnel to get things done, and even (when highly confident that they were incorrect) ignored them saying “you can’t go there” while obviously making no attempt to stop me, just to see what would happen. They did not stop me, nor summon anyone to remove me from the area where they claimed I “couldn’t” be.
It’s highly agentic but probably immoral by most standards to abuse return policies and use places with generous policies as cheap or free rental options.
Identifying and exploiting certain personal finance loopholes may count: Compare spending HSA funds with the provided debit card to making the same purchases on a credit card, reimbursing them from the HSA, and keeping the rewards or sign-up bonus from the credit card company.
Did you know you can go buy a massage chair, which pretty much looks like a regular chair, for a few hundred bucks? Guests are often amazed that I have a massage chair in my living room but I spent less on it than one might on a top-of-the-line recliner.
Have you done the exercise of watching your internal monologue for a day and noting every time you think you “can’t” do something, and then transforming those into “prefer not to” by identifying some ways you could accomplish it but choose not to because the tradeoffs aren’t worth it.
“I can’t fly” becomes “I don’t like the hassle of going to an airport unless I’m going to a specific destination, and the risks of current jetpack technology outweigh the rewards, and I could go paragliding or wingsuiting in one of those wind tunnels if I booked an appointment, and I guess if I wanted to allocate the funds I could take pilot lessons”.
“I can’t defy gravity” becomes “Earth’s gravity applies to me because I’m so close to the planet, but if I dedicated my entire life to becoming a billionaire at all costs I could probably do some space tourism. Actually humans do a lot of things that make g-forces go other directions, like roller coasters and those carnival things with a spinning room, which are all things I could go to if I’m patient or build if I’m risk-tolerant. And I can make things pretend to defy gravity by using magnets or tensegrity principles or static electricity or very powerful fans or all sorts of other tricks.”
Even more awesome examples! Amazing!
This seems really insightful:
I think I’ve started to do a bit without really knowing that I’m doing it. Just like I cringe (and have cringed even before I read the Sequences) when someone says “I’ll try to do [something],” I’ve started to develop a slight revulsion to “I can’t.” This instinct not nearly as strong as I want it to be and I don’t think of all the possibilities that could happen.
Well, thanks for the brain-worm, I’ve been viewing my own behavior through the lens of “am I being agentic about this?” all day =)
You mentioned in passing the theme that agentic-looking outcomes arise from disregarding unnecessary constraints. In watching myself, I notice that my agentic-looking behaviors and accomplishments often arise from rigidly applying an explicit list of gestures-worth-trying, even when I don’t expect them to work.
For instance, I dislike looking at labels on most stuff, so I devote a moderate amount of time to removing unneeded ones. I’ve developed a checklist of techniques which sometimes get sticky stuff un-stuck from other stuff. The list includes water, acetone, heat, paint stripper, sandpaper, magic eraser, razor blades, and other varyingly destructive techniques. I’ve trained myself to consider it a rule that before I just tolerate looking at an unsightly sticker, I should rule out each intervention on the list. By being inflexible about this approach, I manage to remove all kinds of annoying stickers that I didn’t expect would really come off.
Sometimes I also get novel results by going down the list of all the tools I have access to and considering how each one would impact the problem if I used it. It’s honestly pretty great how much force a single smallish human can exert with a manual cable winch, a cheater bar if the winch’s handle is too short for good leverage, and some carabiners and lifting slings rated for 10,000lbs...
Oh, and if you stick stickers directly to the back of your laptop’s screen, consider first putting down either a single full-sized sticker or a protective case. That way when the machine eventually dies you can frame or keep the collection.