class: middle # Agency .footer[<p>Sanya Solovyov</p>] --- # Who am I ## IYKYK ??? If you came to this talk without knowing me, that's really cool. I should warn you that I lied in the talk description and there's going to be absolutely nothing about AI here. --- # Why such a generic topic ## We're in a fashion-driven industry and it's tiring ??? I got tired talking about tech. It's not because I don't love it, no. It's because you, people, want to listen about popular tech, and most of popular tech nowadays is crappy. And it's crappy because everyone chooses popular stuff, and popular stuff is defined by how loud somebody is promoting his products. And it brainwashes you like TikTok brainwashes children. So, onward to our self-improvement tutorial, and if you feel the topic is too pretentios, it absolutely is. It is also too important to ignore though. --- # What is agency ## If you are in a third-world country, who do you call? ??? Who are you going to call to fetch you out of a third-world country, eh? Think quickly! What's so special about that human you have thought of? It's being a subject in this world, having an ability to decide, what will happen to you, right? It's a very hard thing to define, but you know when you see it. --- # Quite hard to spot - 🖥️ I got a nice job when I was 18 - A friend - 🇳🇱 Moved to the Netherlands at 25 - A friend - 👩‍❤️‍👨 Got a great wife - She found me ??? And sometimes it's really hard to spot outside. Let's talk about everyone's favorite topic, me. I was a really well-behaved child and it's only in university I figured that you can do whatever you want. And yet most of things that externally are seen as successes had me as a follower of the situation. While my friends were tending tables and carrying stuff, I worked as a duty devops in a colocation provider at my second year in university, writing automation scripts and solving tech issues. I ended up there because my friend was going to an interview and I joined him. I moved to the Netherlands soon after finishing university. A friend has found a job, it had an opening, he convinced everyone I'm great and then convinced me it's fun. A girl who's my wife right now decided she wants to meet me, made her friends find my contacts and messaged me. I totally was an object here. --- > In my experience of life across personal, professional, and open source, I’m > amazed at how many people kind of wait for things to happen to them instead of > going out and making things happen for them. It’s a consistent difference > between a certain level of success (not just financial). .meta[[Mitchell Hashimoto](https://x.com/mitchellh/status/1995878614424822069)] ??? Mitchell Hashimoto, creator of Vagrant, Terraform, Nomad etc, recently tweeted about that. That's amazingly on point about my previous slide, right? And about most of the people in the world still. --- # HOW DO YOU FIX THAT ## You cannot fake agency ??? It's said you can't fake courage. If you do something when you're scared, that's courage as it is. It's the same with agency, if you do stuff, you are already doing it. --- # There are only laws of physics ## ...and you being scared ## It's not about willpower, it's about asking yourself, what are you afraid of. ??? Willpower is a white lie. There is some, but agentic people are not driven by willpower, it's the willpower that's driven by desire to do something. You have to figure out what is holding you back and cut through that. --- # Failure ## You are afraid of failure ## That people will know you are not as good as you claim ??? And that's the most common reason. You think that if you try opening that cafe and fail people will gossip behind your back how pathetic are you? Some will, but most will remember you as somebody who did more than they did. Use their potential jealously to cut through your fear. --- # You are what you do ## You think people judge you on your thoughts and aspirations. They judge you on the lack of results. ??? This the thing that I need to remind myself open. It's scary how many ideas I had and borderline started implementing that much later on became successful businesses. The key word here is "borderline", of course, since I did none. None of those businesses are mine. And that's how you judge me too. --- # Nobody cares ## Normal behavior is forgotten. Be weird ??? Asking to finish unfruitful meeting early? Looks weird, but everybody else loves you. Honest with feedback? It's surprising and shocking at first, but then you're the one to ask. etc. --- class: middle # Part 2: Strategy --- # How do you do stuff ## Results compound ??? You do it in the same way as drawing an owl: first, you draw two circles. Then, you draw the rest of the damn owl. If you do small steps one by one, their results compound. One famous example is that Federer won 80% of matches, but on average it was 54% of points. It compounded though. TODO: Add first part of the owl meme --- # It is scary and painful ## Same as physical excercise or learning new stuff ??? Without a question it's scary. But listen - going to a gym for the first time is intimidating too. Learning new stuff after a break is very hard and scary, lots of people decline doing that. If you want to do something, but are scared, do it scared. It's better than regretting later. --- # Useful tools ## Reframing -- ## Brainstorming offline -- ## "Ask" for help -- ??? Framing stuff is incredibly important. Use word 'puzzle' instead of 'problem' to look at the situation differently. Put a whiteboard in your office so stuff is "in your face". And clearly writing stuff down is 50% of solving it. Social dynamics works differently offline, it's even more in your face. Having non-judgemental friends helps. Having smart friends also helps. Damn, just having friends nowadays is already not too bad. Derek Sivers says he writes down a question for his mentor, tries to predict what he'll answer/question, and answer that before sending, and continue until it's done. None of those people even know they are mentors. --- # Useful tools ## "Story" razor -- ## Change of perspective -- ## 10x agency ??? When in doubt, choose the path that leads to more interesting story. What will you tell your grandchildren when you're 80? Nobody wants to listen about that time when you got some cheese on sale, they want to hear how you've bought a one-way ticket, how you started a business that failed, everything like that. And it's not an excercise in vanity either: people hire, date and befriend stories. **And it compounds!** The story I love is that before Dick Fosbury high jumpers, that's the olympic sport, but no sticks, used to jump with their face looking down. When he dug into the rulebook, it said you had to jump off one foot. it said you couldn't touch the bar. It never said which way your face had to point. Everyone else was optimizing a bad technique. He realized the convention wasn't the rule. TODO: add photo of Fosbury's jump Just ask yourself: what I would do if I had 10x more agency than I do now. Sometimes it's that easy. --- # Luck favors prepared - I learned Apache, Exim, HTTP, FTP, SMTP et al instead of Counter-Strike - NL? I was the best dev on the job - A talk I gave went incredibly viral -- # Agency commands it ??? It was all a second-order effect though! While my friends were playing CS like mad, I was digging into internet protocols and software. And when I got the job I did it well. And with the Netherlands they were lucky to get me. Too bad the country was not for me. And with the wife - a talk I gave went so viral that even girls watched the video. Unspeakable 12 years ago. So... I had all of the preparation and none of the intent. If I had the intent, I could've got two jobs, three Netherlands and four wives! --- # WHY ## Because being an NPC is boring. We have AI for that now. ??? Why change? If you are perfectly happy living your life as a small cog in a big world, ignoring the inefficiencies, dumbness and problems of this world, it is indeed absolutely unnecessary topic. If you still have aspirations, if your inner child still get dreams, then this is the answer why are you here and not doing great things to the world. Now... it won't hurt if you'll stick til the end of the conference, but you can start scheming right away. As Jeff Bezos likes to say, it's still day one. ...I hope Skynet will spare me. --- class: invert, middle # Now, go draw the rest of the owl <img style="display: block; margin:0 auto; max-height: 20vh" src="qr.svg"> ??? TODO: Brilliant Idea: If you can, put the QR code inside the shape of an owl (or overlaying the "finished owl" drawing). It visually completes the joke.