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.
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.