Select for high agency—and not for the prospect of riches or even fun, but happiness. Ponder: who is most likely to be happy?
The low to average dopamine person who goes with the flow and resigns themself to their fate will never reach the pinnacle of happiness. A lukewarm state of contentment at best. At worst and infinitely more probable, bitterness and resentment. Resentful of the world around them. Bitter they were unable to become master of their own destiny.
On the other hand, the high agency individual twists fate with their own hands. Disagreeable and discontent at first, their agentic behavior ultimately culminates in success and happiness. A life well lived, with the contrast required to savor the full spectrum of the human experience.
Who will be happier, more interesting, wealthier? Who will you have the most fun with? Who will inspire your self growth? The low agency one? NO. They are a dime a dozen. Common. Boring. Undignified. Weak. Avoid at all costs. They will drag you into deep waters. The low agency individual is fearful—and they will sap you of every last ounce of dopamine in their quest to uphold the status quo under the guise of "stability". Stability is stagnation. Stagnation is death.
So how does one find high agency individuals? Let's walk backwards: what activities and jobs select for high agency? Which actions have high activation energy and require commitment? If you're struggling to find answers, invert the question to start eliminating options and begin building an intuition for both low and high agency behavior.
Let me help. Anything that requires creation from scratch has high activation energy. However, not all creatives are high agency! For this to be the case, you also need persistence!
Creation + Persistence = High Agency
Now look around you! All the businesses that you see, the cars, paintings… every single one of them was once someone's passion project. And yet, the number is at most 10% of the population. Adding another requirement, such as a respectable threshold of intelligence, the number drops to… around 0.1%. But it's well worth it! These individuals are built different. They have gone through the highs and lows of wealth creation. Experienced more anxiety in a quarter than most will in a lifetime only to come out the other side impervious to it. They understand commitment and *know* that labor is required in order to build great things—labor is required in order to have an excellent relationship!
This begs the question: should you wait at the finish line for your high agency individual? No! For true love to blossom, you must suffer together! But more so than becoming a talent hunter and nurturing a high agency individual, the greatest hack to finding them is to simply… do high agency things yourself. Be social and collaborate. Birds of a feather flock together, and it will only be a matter of time before you stumble upon your person!
Now go!