High Agency
Refuse the story handed to you and find a way through by any means necessary
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 85%
High agency, which MacGill takes from Eric Weinstein, is the single trait he sees separating people who get things done from those who don't. The core question is whether you believe the story that's given to you: told you can't do something, the low-agency person complies while the high-agency person finds a way regardless. It rests on a high internal locus of control (never outsourcing your mental state), reasoning from first principles rather than accepting convention, and raw resourcefulness — Bezos's version is asking which friends you'd call to break you out of a third-world prison. Because the barrier is so low, anyone who goes genuinely above and beyond stands out immediately, which is why a single high-agency individual can outperform entire institutions.
Origin
MacGill credits Eric Weinstein for the framing and wrote an essay on it, blending Jeff Bezos's 'resourcefulness' test, Josh Waitzkin on locus of control, and Peter Thiel's ten-year-goal compression question.
Core principles
- 01Do not accept the limiting story someone tells you
- 02Never outsource your locus of control
- 03Resourcefulness beats book-smarts for getting things done
- 04Low barriers mean going above and beyond makes you stand out instantly
How to run it
- 1
Disbelieve the limiting story
When told you can't do something, treat that story as a claim to test, not a fact to accept.
- 2
Own your locus of control
Refuse to outsource your mental state to circumstances like weather, luck, or other people.
Pro tip Waitzkin's example: go out and play in the bad weather rather than let it dictate your mood.
- 3
Reason from first principles
Break the situation down and ask whether the way everyone does it is actually correct.
- 4
Apply work ethic and creativity
Bring intense effort and inventiveness to finding a route others won't attempt.
Pro tip Ask Thiel's question: what's your ten-year goal, and how would you do it in six months?
- 5
Take the low-barrier action
Do the direct, unglamorous thing almost nobody else will, and you stand out like a sore thumb.
Watch out Knowing about agency from books means nothing without acting on it.
In the wild
The FBI and DEA both failed to bring down Silk Road's Dread Pirate Roberts. The person who cracked it was an IRS tax inspector who simply googled back through old forums, found an early Bitcoin-forum post advertising the site, traced the registered email to a Gmail address containing Ross Ulbricht's name, and pushed the lead despite superiors not believing him. One resourceful individual outperformed two federal agencies.
→ A single high-agency person solved what institutions couldn't.
A young man from a rough part of London wanting to succeed searched for the richest part of the city, found it was Kensington, and started knocking on doors asking for advice. The second house belonged to a managing director at BlackRock, who offered him an internship. Because the barrier to such action is so low, going above and beyond made him stand out instantly.
→ A direct, unconventional action produced an outsized opportunity.
Common mistakes
Reading about it without acting
People consume endless books yet do nothing, because agency is defined by action, not knowledge.
Outsourcing your locus of control
Blaming weather, timing, or other people surrenders the very control high agency depends on.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone trying to break out of a default path or achieve something others say is impossible.
Not ideal for
Situations demanding compliance, patience, or deference to established process.
From the transcript
“the high agency person it's like... I'm going to like figure out a way of doing this”
“the person who took... down was a IRS tax inspector”
“never outsource your locus of control you control your mental state”
From the episode
Mental Models 101 - How To Make Better Decisions - George MacGill - #069
George MacGill