10 Life-Changing Insights from George Mack's High Agency Essay
In a world where many people feel like victims of circumstance, "high agency" might be the most important concept of our time. High agency individuals don't wait for life to happen to them; they make things happen. They're the people you'd call if you were stuck in a crisis and needed someone to move mountains.
I recently read George Mack's brilliant essay on high agency, and it fundamentally shifted how I think about personal power and problem-solving. Here are 10 key takeaways that could transform your approach to life's challenges.
1. The ultimate high agency test
Picture this scenario: You wake up in a third-world jail cell and can only call one person to get you out. Who would you call?
The person who immediately came to mind embodies high agency. They possess that indefinable quality (a spark, a "je ne sais quoi") that makes you confident they'd find a way to solve seemingly impossible problems.
This mental exercise reveals something profound about agency. High agency people don't just talk about solutions; they make them happen. They view obstacles as puzzles to solve rather than walls that stop them. When everyone else sees impossibility, they see opportunity.
2. The high agency trinity: Clear thinking + action + disagreeability
High agency isn't a single trait. It's three distinct skills working in harmony:
- Clear thinking: The ability to see problems without emotional fog or cognitive biases clouding judgment.
- Bias to action: Moving ideas from theory into reality, refusing to get stuck in analysis paralysis.
- Disagreeability: The courage to swim against social currents when everyone else says "no" or "impossible."
Remove any one element and the system breaks down. Someone with clear thinking but no action bias becomes a perpetual planner. Someone with action but poor thinking charges ahead with bad plans. Someone agreeable lacks the backbone to persist when authority figures push back.
3. Transform the impossible: "Does this defy physics?"
When faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, ask yourself: "Does this defy the laws of physics?"
If the answer is no, then it's not truly impossible, just difficult. This simple reframe shifts your brain from "this can't be done" to "how might this be possible?"
Consider Claude Shannon and Edward Thorp, who "hacked" roulette in 1961 by building the first wearable computer. Everyone said beating the house was impossible, but they recognized it didn't violate physical laws. They improved their odds by 44% and proved that human ingenuity can solve problems others dismiss as hopeless.
4. Kill your gurus: The adults don't exist
One of the biggest barriers to high agency is believing in a mythical "adult class" of perfect people who have everything figured out.
The truth? Your heroes are deeply flawed humans. Steve Jobs delayed cancer treatment for carrot juice. Mozart lived in crushing debt. Isaac Newton spent 30 years writing about alchemy. Napoleon's hemorrhoids may have cost him Waterloo.
This isn't meant to diminish their achievements but to liberate you from the illusion that you need to wait for permission from some superior group of "adults." There are no perfect people running the world, just flawed humans doing their best.
5. Normal is forgotten, weird survives
We hide our uniqueness to fit in, but here's the paradox: normal behavior is instantly forgettable, while authentic weirdness becomes memorable stories.
At funerals, no one remembers the deceased's "normal" behavior. The eulogies are filled with weird, hilarious, touching stories: moments when the person broke from the median distribution of human behavior and showed their true self.
If you pay everyone's bill at dinner, the initial reaction is shock. Long-term, it becomes everyone's favorite memory of you. The short-term cost of being weird creates long-term story assets that people treasure.
6. Escape the five low agency traps
Mack identifies five mental prisons that keep people stuck:
- The vague trap: Staying stuck because you never clearly define the problem. Solution: Transform thoughts out of your head; write, draw, speak them into clarity.
- The midwit trap: Overcomplicating simple solutions. Solution: Ask what the least intelligent person would do, then take those simple ideas seriously.
- The attachment trap: Clinging to old assumptions. Solution: Ask "What would I do with 10x the agency?" to break free from limiting beliefs.
- The rumination trap: Endless thinking without action. Solution: Reframe stress as a smoke alarm for action and ask "How can I take action now?"
- The overwhelm trap: Paralysis from massive goals. Solution: Break everything into "Level 1" actions small enough to start immediately.
7. The power of "There's no way"
High agency people reject the notion that there's one "right way" to do anything. Consider tennis legends Nadal (pure aggression), Djokovic (scientific precision), and Federer (creative playfulness): three completely different approaches to excellence.
When Bob Dylan asked Leonard Cohen how long "Hallelujah" took to write, Cohen said "a couple of years" (actually seven). When Cohen asked about "Just Like a Woman," Dylan replied "fifteen minutes." Both created masterpieces using entirely different methods.
Your path doesn't need to look like anyone else's. Find what works for you and commit to that approach.
8. There's only now: The finite game of life
The past exists only as memory. The future is imagination. Life is an endless series of present moments, and you have a finite number of them.
Kevin Smith's father worked a soul-crushing job for decades, playing by all the rules, doing everything "right." When he died suddenly, Smith's brother said something that changed the filmmaker's life: "He died screaming."
This stark reality check led Smith to pursue every "stupid dream" because he realized even good people who follow all the rules can end up dying in terror, wondering what might have been.
9. Turn values into reality
Most people hold abstract values that never translate into action. High agency individuals operationalize their beliefs through the "Turning Bullshit Into Reality" exercise:
- Write down something you value (gratitude, courage, love)
- List 10 specific ways to demonstrate that value in reality
- Pick one (ideally the scariest option)
- Break it into micro-steps
- Do it now
This shifts you from a to-do list mentality to a creative model of living. Instead of reacting to urgent tasks, you proactively create meaningful actions aligned with your deepest values.
10. Use the story razor for decision-making
When stuck between options, ask: "What makes the better story?"
Life is a form of self-storytelling, and people with extraordinary agency realize they're authors of their story, not mere subjects. Having a fascinating life story isn't vanity; it compounds into real advantages. Interesting people attract better friends, partners, and opportunities.
As entrepreneur Amjad Masad puts it: "If it turned out to be the wrong decision, you'd at least be fun at dinner parties."
Moving forward: Your agency starts now
High agency isn't a personality trait you're born with; it's a set of skills you can develop. The essay provides practical tools like the Swedish House Mafia technique (locking yourself in a room with smart people to solve problems) and asking mentors questions so thoroughly that you answer them yourself.
But the most important insight is this: agency begins with recognizing you have it. You're not a passive recipient of life's circumstances. You're an active participant with the power to shape your reality.
The question isn't whether you have the capability for high agency (you do). The question is whether you'll choose to develop and use it.
Which of these insights resonates most with you? More importantly, which one will you act on today?