Interconnected Agency

Sam Kriss wrote a piece in Harper's recently about "agency" - the new currency in Silicon Valley. VCs want founders who are "highly agentic." People who just do things. Who move like bulldozers through whatever's in their way.

Kriss' article is called "Child’s Play: Tech's new generation and the end of thinking". It's an excellent piece. Worth reading. But something kept nagging at me after.

Not at Sam Kriss. At how familiar it all felt. How easy it is to recognise the bulldozer - and how easy it is to become one without noticing.

Agency is a real word. It means something - or it used to. The capacity to act. To shape your circumstances. To not be purely subject to forces outside your control.

It's been part of philosophy, psychology, political theory - it's done real work for a long time.

And now Silicon Valley has it.

Which means in a few years it'll be hollow - like "disruption," "community,", "sovereignty." Words that meant something until they became merchandise. Take something relational, ethical, or systemic... make it individual, extractive, brandable.

But I don't want to give them the word.

Agency matters. The capacity to act, to not be helpless, to shape what happens next - that's not nothing. Especially now.

What does it look like when you don't amputate the rest?

Agency that knows it's not alone in the frame.

The bulldozer version feels powerful. But it's actually brittle - it only works if you don't care what's left behind.

The version in the Harper's piece goes back to the individualistic, single player, lionized version that so many of us are exhausted by. Yet it's such an easy game to fall into - playing on solo mode.

I'm gonna go for Interconnected Agency.

You act knowing others exist. Your moves affect theirs. That's not a constraint - that's what makes it real.

P.S. Stay tuned for my 'Interconnected Agency' trademark, YouTube podcast, and merchandise line.