The popular concept of being a 'high agency' person is a rebranding of the 'radical responsibility' teachings from programs like Landmark and Tony Robbins. It's coded language for a belief system where individuals are powerful actors who shape their environment, rather than victims of it.

To get a group to accept unconventional ideas, first conform to its established values to build trust. This earns you "idiosyncrasy credits," which you can later "spend" on deviating from the norm without being rejected. This 'conform, then innovate' strategy was used by The Beatles to gain mainstream acceptance before experimenting.

For young people pursuing non-traditional careers, parental discomfort is a preferable outcome to seeking approval. If you succeed, their pride is immense. If you fail, you learn to operate without their validation. Both outcomes build crucial entrepreneurial resilience.

The person you'd call to break you out of prison (assuming they have no wealth or contacts) embodies high agency. This quality isn't just IQ or work ethic, but a rare combination of extreme resourcefulness, absurd self-belief, and a high locus of control.

Using an LLM analogy, Daniel Ek seeks "high-temperature" people—individuals who might produce many bad ideas, but whose chaotic thinking also generates rare, brilliant insights. He prefers this variance to the reliable consistency of conformists, believing breakthroughs come from the fringe.

Actively resisting the algorithm's pull towards popular content is a "bicep curl" for agency. By deliberately clicking on videos with very few views, you train your mind to seek out novelty and think independently, breaking free from societal pulls and discovering trends early.

Successful individuals earn 'idiosyncrasy credit,' allowing them to deviate from social norms. However, observers often make the mistake of assuming these eccentricities were necessary for success. In reality, these behaviors are often tolerated or hidden until success provides the freedom to express them.

Society instinctively criticizes people who defy their established labels, like a CEO who DJs or a celebrity passionate about prison reform. True freedom requires the 'courage to be disliked'—the willingness to pursue authentic interests even if they seem inconsistent or confusing to others.

True independent thinking requires the ability to disagree, even with your heroes. A powerful test of this 'disagreeability' is to identify the person you admire most—a podcaster, creator, or thinker—and clearly articulate a specific point on which you diverge from their views. This prevents intellectual subservience.