In praise of talented, high agency people
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Moving on!
This quote his home this week:
“The bottomline is this -- the fundamental shortage in the world is of talented high agency people and not structural factors. most people will not be able to turn a 'warm intro' into anything” - Emphasis mine, twitter link here
This is why I advocate so strongly for elevating the status of successful entrepreneurs, even for whatever faults they might have.
The world needs more people who are willing to exercise their agency in high leverage areas - and attacking those who are trying (or even who failed!) inevitably decreases the supply of talented, high agency people.
Trevor
The Case for American Seriousness (article)
Speaking of talented, high agency people…
The article wastes no time in getting started, describing what makes an extraordinary entrepreneur:
“But the trait that is most meaningful is the hardest to describe. It is the fire in the eyes, the ferocity of speech and action that is the physical manifestation of seriousness. It is the belief that God or the universe has bestowed upon you an immense task that no one else can accomplish but you. It is a holy war waged against the laws of physics. It is the burden of having to upend sometimes hundreds of years of entrenched interests to accomplish a noble goal.”
What I enjoy most about this article is anger: dirty needles at the airport of the tech capital of the world? How can we be doing this?
I want to highlight the whole thing:
“It is unserious to prioritize the old over the young, to shut down public schools for two years in the name of safety, sacrificing the needs of children for the neuroses of adults. “
“It is unserious to beg dictators in failed states to send America oil when we invented fracking. It is unserious to talk about renewables and not nuclear.”
“We do not need aging institutions to pave the way for American dynamism. But we need American will. And this will comes from ordinary, extraordinary people—the builder class—who’ve chosen to stop whining on Twitter. Who’ve chosen to turn off the news and to believe that this country is not only capable, but unquestionably and undeniably serious.”
Community Input Is Bad, Actually (article)
If you want to build housing, ignore the neighbors.
Or as I like to say about Twitter: ignore the screamers
Quote Tweet
“The long term consequences of not speaking up are infinitely more severe than the short term consequences of speaking up.”
Severance opening credits set to music from The Office (youtube)
Decent show - hope seasons 2 can deliver.
Director tweets fantastic stories about making movies (article)
I linked to a good summary, his Twitter account is here.
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