Note: This is a small blurb of what I know about agency and work ethic, which I feel is true. This is more of a life lesson in my opinion.
On High Agency and Work Ethic
Better beware of notions like genius and inspiration; they are a sort of magic wand and should be used sparingly by anybody who wants to see things clearly. José Ortega y Gasset
One of the traits of highly successful and intelligent people is something called high agency and relentless work ethic. If you have been under the impression that all of it is talent, that is simply not true, I’m pretty sure most of the time, it is having high agency and work ethic.
If you are aware about the life of Terry Tao, you can quickly judge that whatever he has achieved is purely based on talent, but sorry to break the bubble, it is simply not true. In his own words, “Progress is obtained naturally and cumulatively as a consequence of hard work, directed by intuition, literature, and a bit of luck”. Having talent is a gift, not an excuse. More so, it is equally important on how one develops and nurtures their talent.
Hard Work is a talent, Discipline is also a talent. Talents are not always latent which are waiting for some trigger to just spring into your life - that’s what happens in movies, and in reality it is simply not true. If you dive deeply into the lives of people who are even remotely successful, you can deduce most of the time what made them who they are today, is work ethic and being high agency.
High agency people bend reality to their will. When presented with a problem, a high agency person deals with it head on. They take responsibility and ownership of the problem, and usually get to the core of the problem and try solving it - this shows how much you care about the problem, and to what limit you can pursue it. They don’t limit themselves, they figure shit out, and usually this is a huge differentiator. If you do everything, you will win.
Work ethic is something that fuels high agency. If you want to have a take away from this blog, it should be that every(and any) quality can be cultivated - all it requires is effort. Do whatever it takes, and be in the driver seat of your own life - take your destiny in your own hands. Read books, take inspiration from other people. In the end, love what you do purely, and agency will just follow. Only condition is that you have to be ruthless in implementation and do high quality work.
Speaking from personal experience, I wasn’t someone who used to have a work ethic, as I was told from a really early age that I was smart. I was writing computer games before I knew how to use a pen and read encyclopedias about things I didn’t even know existed. School was easy, as with very little effort, I was among the top students. With time, I got to know the value of work ethic, and just how important it is to have it. I worked a lot on this particular area in my life, and now I’m in a much better place. I know my capabilities, and can improve on it endlessly.
People are obsessed with prodigies and often believe having such identity can set them apart. They swallow the pill that “they are not smart” and often don’t pursue(or quickly give up) what they want because of this. It takes time, patience, resilience, a deep sense of affection for the craft and most importantly - hard work. Don’t aim to be a prodigy, be Sisyphus :)