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397 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 24 Feb \ on: How to be more agentic BooksAndArticles

I've gotten pretty good at asking the right question.

I'd like to be better at this. Is there something you did to make yourself this way or is it who you are?

Burnout is the ultimate agency-killer. This is so true that I’ve learned to identify a reduction in agency as one of the first signs of burnout, one that shows up even before I consciously realize what’s happening.

Good burnout detection method.

A switch flips and I start looking for ways to rule out ideas and actions, to conclude they won’t work or aren’t necessary, rather than chasing better versions.

I'll usually unflip the switch by forcing myself into "yes and" or a state of negative capability. I can't tell now if I'm unflipping burnout or just turning off the alarm.

494 sats \ 0 replies \ @elvismercury OP 24 Feb

I'd like to be better at this. Is there something you did to make yourself this way or is it who you are?

I think it's reps.

I realized, a few years ago, that without ever intending to, I'd been training for years: writing in a journal, digging into things, trying to understand them, and part of understanding them was asking questions, trying to go back to the very root of whatever it was so at least I'd know what I didn't know. And since it was just me, staring at a notebook, I could afford to be really stupid. Like, who cares if I reveal, in my notebook, what a dunce I am, how I don't understand the basic things about x?

I think that was it. I just got in the habit of doing that, and after thousands of hours of it, it began to pay off when I got in an honest environment that valued truth-seeking. Probably the second part should be emphasized more -- it's a rare environment where trying to get at the truth is rewarded. I wound up in one by accident.