Agency
How can you expand your capability to shape what happens next?
- CAPTURE INTENTION
- ENGINEER & BUILD
- MEASURE CONSEQUENCE
- ITERATE OR SHIP
- DEEPER REFLECTION
Flow of thought to flow of energy with minimal friction.
The Speed Problem
The agricultural revolution transformed society over 7,000 years. The industrial revolution took 140 years. AI is transforming everything in a decade.
Government won't save you. They weren't ready 10 years ago. They're not ready now. They may never be ready in time. The Luddites didn't riot because machines were bad—they rioted because 70% of jobs disappeared faster than humans could adapt. People panic when the environment changes faster than their ability to adapt.
You don't need the government to be ready. You need you to be ready. That means developing three specific skills.
The Three Pattern Skills
| Skill | What It Is | What It Creates |
|---|---|---|
| Recognition | See what's coming before others | Fear disappears—you've seen this before |
| Utilization | Use what you see | Power—you invest, build, and lead better |
| Creation | Develop new patterns | Irreplaceability—you're the pilot, not the passenger |
Pattern Recognition is seeing the rhyme in history. People fear what looks unprecedented. But history doesn't repeat—it rhymes. Those who saw 2008 coming, who saw AI's impact before ChatGPT, weren't prophets. They recognized patterns others missed.
Pattern Utilization is acting on what you see. Recognition alone is worthless. For thousands of years, humans wandered as hunter-gatherers. What changed everything? We recognized the pattern of seasons—and then utilized it. Plant in spring. Protect in summer. Harvest in fall. Conserve in winter. That single pattern, properly utilized, built civilization.
Pattern Creation is the ultimate level. First you learn others' patterns (their songs, their techniques). Then you use those patterns to create. But eventually, you develop your own patterns. You become the creator. In business, sports, any field—the GOATs create patterns that never existed before.
The identity shift: Most people are managers of their lives—stressed, reactive, trying to control circumstances they can't control. The future belongs to those who see themselves as creators. When you shift from "I manage problems" to "I create solutions," AI becomes your tool, not your replacement.
You won't be replaced by AI. You'll be replaced by someone who uses AI better than you.
Games as Training Ground
Where do you develop pattern skills? Games are the original feedback loop technology—the tightest loops we have.
| Pattern Skill | Game Type That Trains It | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|
| Recognition | Strategy games, prediction markets | Immediate feedback on what you saw vs what happened |
| Utilization | Coordination games | Use patterns to achieve shared objectives |
| Creation | Sandbox/creative games, game design | Build systems from scratch, test novel patterns |
Coordination games teach the most valuable lessons because they're positive-sum. Chess teaches pattern recognition. Poker teaches utilization under uncertainty. But team sports and multiplayer coordination games teach something deeper: how to see, use, and create patterns with others.
The chain: Games → Patterns → Beliefs → Culture → Agency
Gaming before homework improves retention. Regular gamers anticipate second, third, fourth-order consequences better than non-gamers. Gamers develop collaboration with AI, managing bot programs, working in virtual environments—skills increasingly essential for work.
The question isn't whether to play. It's which games develop which patterns.
ENERGY SYSTEMS
The critical question isn't whether AI will be powerful. It's where you create irreplaceable value.
| Agent | Fuel | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Beings | Electricity, data, code | Speed, scale, pattern recognition |
| Human Beings | Food, sleep, connections | Purpose, meaning, ethics, narrative |
Data and energy are the lifeblood of any AI-driven economy—but culture remains king.
Money as Agency Fuel
Financial pressure narrows options. Financial freedom expands them. Making money isn't separate from agency — it's foundational to it.
The question isn't "how do I get rich?" It's "what opportunities match my current resources while building toward expanded options?"
The Agency Matrix
What combination of Character, Capabilities, and Drive enables valued contribution?
| Component | What It Is | Pattern Skill It Enables | AI Resistant? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | What you can DO | Recognition + Utilization | Mixed—many are automatable |
| Character | Who you ARE | Creation (identity shift) | Yes—can't be faked |
| Drive | What MOVES you | Sustained utilization | Yes—purpose is human |
| Foundations | What you NEED | Enables all three | Context-dependent |
The Matrix Cross
| Low Character | High Character | |
|---|---|---|
| High Capability | Dangerous—skilled but untrustworthy | Leader—creates patterns others follow |
| Low Capability | Irrelevant—nothing to offer | Trustworthy—valued for integrity, learning fast |
The insight: Capabilities without character is a liability. Character without capabilities is potential. The combination creates irreplaceable value.
Pattern Skills × Agency Components
| Pattern Skill | Primary Driver | Secondary | Development Path |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recognition | Capabilities (pattern seeing) | Character (honest perception) | Games, deliberate practice, feedback loops |
| Utilization | Drive (sustained action) | Capabilities (tool mastery) | Work, coordination with others, skin in the game |
| Creation | Character (identity as creator) | Drive (purpose beyond self) | Ship things, take responsibility, mentor others |
Valued Contribution
What makes contribution feel meaningful?
| Need | How It's Met | Pattern Skill |
|---|---|---|
| Mastery | Getting better at something that matters | Recognition |
| Connection | Others benefit from what you do | Utilization |
| Purpose | Your work outlasts you | Creation |
The progression: Recognize patterns → Utilize them to create value for others → Create new patterns that others can use.
Fulfillment = Agency in service of others.
T-Shaped Agency
Wide perspective, deep commitment. The Dream Engineer model:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ← HORIZONTAL: reach, distribute, connect
┃
┃ ← VERTICAL: build, transform, ship
┃
| Bar | Skills | Creates |
|---|---|---|
| Horizontal (soft) | Sales, marketing, storytelling, negotiation, networking | Distribution - how value reaches people |
| Vertical (hard) | Engineering, design, production, coding, making | Transformation - how value gets created |
Master both = unstoppable. Ideas without distribution die quiet. Distribution without substance is noise.
Wide at top (curiosity feeds the hopper). Narrow at bottom (filter hard, commit fully). Ten ideas at 10% = zero shipped. One idea at 100% = something real.
Development
🗃️ Capabilities
18 items
🗃️ Character
2 items
🗃️ Drive
6 items
📄️ Foundations
What do all conscious beings need to flourish?
📄️ Money Matrix
Map opportunity types against your resources, time, and trust to find paths that expand agency
Predictions
Based on 2026 predictions:
- 90% of knowledge work becomes automatable — but automatable ≠ automated
- Education splits — credential factories vs agency accelerators
- Portfolios replace degrees — what you shipped > what you studied
- The only robust career is entrepreneurship — self-directed value creation
Agency becomes the explicit curriculum. Not a byproduct of education—the subject itself.
| What's Taught | How It's Built |
|---|---|
| Initiative | Ship before anyone asks |
| Resilience | Fail publicly, iterate openly |
| AI Fluency | Extend capability, not replace judgment |
| Building | Four years of projects > four years of classes |
This is the game as education. See Education Transformation.
What Remains Human?
AI will handle routine cognition. Incentives will be engineered by machines that understand all our biases. What remains?
- Selling - trust requires character
- Purpose - meaning can't be computed
- Ethics - judgment requires skin in the game
- Narrative - stories need a storyteller with stakes
Use AI to extend your agency, not replace it. Keep purpose in human hands. Offload pattern recognition to machines.
Find your point of difference. Develop capabilities that compound. Build conviction through action.
Play long-term games with long-term people. Build systems where better data and cheaper energy amplify character—not undermine it.
Context
| If you want to... | Go to... |
|---|---|
| Develop pattern skills | Games — the tightest feedback loops |
| Build T-shaped capabilities | Dream Engineer — why and how |
| Understand what's automating | Work Charts — activity-level tracking |
| Build character that lasts | Character — who you are when it's hard |
| Find your drive source | Drive — push vs pull |
| See the prediction thesis | 2027 Predictions — the timeline |
How do you see the future? Where can you offer a valued point of difference?
The call to adventure is here. AI is that call. Will you answer it?