Nintil - Agencymaxxing

Agency is defined here as being aware of what's possible beyond the obvious next step and getting what you want when it differs from what your environment wants, with agentic actions being those more predictable from the individual than from the environment. The author illustrates this with Retro Biosciences, whose original lab space was a waffle warehouse with shipping-container labs, an idea the author says most biotech founders never consider. The text also argues that agency is distinct from ambition, and that a Zen monk's decision to enter a monastery can be highly agentic even though the monk surrenders agency inside it.