Learning to exercise agency

In ordinary language, we frequently speak of machinery or ideas ‘doing’ things in our lives. But they do nothing. People – human persons – produce, operate and apply their creations. The problem with assigning agency, even informally, to the nonhuman is that this disguises the strength of human control, limited though it is in other respects. It le... See more

there’s no character trait more essential to individual and societal progress than agency. Agency is the embodied conviction that you have the power to create meaningful change in your life and transform your vision into reality. It’s the engine that powers human progress.

Things that make this hard in practice:-It’s hard to actually know what you want or need;-It’s hard to be creative about solutions and imagine how another person would help solve it;-It can be intimidating to ask the person;