korrents

agency

Why does agency matter? — the views on this, and who holds which

Acting on the world rather than waiting: what it does for work, whether it can be learned, and whether AI widens or takes it.

FilterEveryone, all time7 from 6 people
Who Everyone FLFei-Fei Li 2 ACAlbert Cheng 1 CHCate Hall 1 EMEthan Mollick 1 JZJulie Zhuo 1 NENeetCode 1
When All time Past 1 yearPast 3 yearsPast 5 years
  1. EM

    Ethan Mollick quoted

    Professor at Wharton studying how people actually use AI

    Our readingHuman initiative to experiment without waiting for instructions is increasingly important for getting value from AI.

    Their wordsHuman agency, the willingness to push, experiment and act without waiting for instructions, seems increasingly important to getting value out of AI

    ↗Agency and Agentsoneusefulthing.org

  2. 3 weeks earlier
  3. FL

    Fei-Fei Li quoted

    Sequoia Professor of Computer Science at Stanford

    Our readingAI should be built as a tool that strengthens human agency, and the people leading the field should stop talking as though it will take agency away.

    Their wordswe need to think about AI as a tool that helps us in our agency. It does it should not take away our agency and people who lead in today's AI should not try to talk like that this this work will take away agency from people.

    ↗Using AI to Increase Your Intelligence & Enrich Humanity | Dr. Fei-Fei Liyoutube.com 8th of 21 in this recording

  5. FL

    Fei-Fei Li quoted

    Our readingThe worst outcome of AI for young people is that it takes away their agency and their motivation to learn.

    motivation

    Their wordsThe absolute bad outcome is that our young generation, their agency and human level motivation of learning and living is taken away by tools. So doom scrolling, passive watching of shorts, all this are not helping agency, human agency.

    ↗Using AI to Increase Your Intelligence & Enrich Humanity | Dr. Fei-Fei Liyoutube.com 15th of 21 in this recording

  6. 7 weeks earlier
  7. NE

    NeetCode quoted

    Naveed Singh, the software engineer behind NeetCode

    Our readingAgency is what makes a hire good: the willingness to take a task in a domain you know nothing about and have learned the whole thing a week later.

    startups

    Their wordsI think like in startups the term is agency. Like somebody who's high agency who's just going to get things done, who's never going to like say no to something. I think like that attitude is really important of like okay, if I don't know something, I'll just learn it.

    ↗Tech interviews with NeetCodeyoutube.com 20th of 21 in this recording

  8. 9 months earlier
  9. AC

    Albert Cheng quoted

    Head of growth at Chess.com

    Our readingAgency and clock speed beat domain experience in a hire, and in a fast-moving field experience is often a crutch of habits that need discarding.

    energy

    Their wordsI saw some of the highest performers just being people that had very high agency, had that clock speed, had that energy. Um, yes, they they cared about the mission, but they didn't necessarily need to have deep experience on that matter. And in fact, sometimes that experience could be a crutch in certain ways. Especially in this world where the grounds are shifting so fast with AI, a lot of your like learn habits actually need to be intentionally discarded. You know, you need to have a beginner's mind on this type of stuff.

    ↗Finding hidden growth opportunities in your product | Albert Cheng (Duolingo, Grammarly, Chess.com)youtube.com 25th of 26 in this recording

  10. 6 months earlier
  11. JZ

    Julie Zhuo quoted

    Co-founder of Sundial; former vice president of product…

    Our readingAI favours tiny teams of high-agency individual contributors with blurred roles, and the coordinating manager is not needed until it is time to polish.

    Their wordsWelcome to the era of AI-native companies, where individual contributors (ICs) reign supreme.

    ↗The Death of Product Development as We Know itlg.substack.com

  12. 14 months earlier
  13. CH

    Cate Hall quoted

    Former Supreme Court litigator and the top-ranked female…

    Our readingRadical agency is finding real edges: the things other people are unwilling to do because they are annoying or unpleasant.

    Their wordsIn my way of thinking, radical agency is about finding real edges: things you are willing to do that others aren’t, often because they’re annoying or unpleasant.

    ↗How to be more agenticusefulfictions.substack.com 1st of 9 in this piece

How recent

The line under a date fills as the words age, a quarter at a time: past a month, six months, a year, and three years. Empty means said within the last month; full, more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.

Dashed means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.