The Morality Paradox

High Agency Versus Goal Oriented Behaviors

Sometimes, someone will ask me how Jill and I accomplish everything that we do. That is, travel about a third of each month, broadcast on TV and podcasts, write this substack, write books, write articles for other journals, garden, take care of our 20 horses, birds, dogs, and the farm, maintain a certain level of fitness, all the while taking care of our bodies and eating right. It is a lot, and we aren’t perfect. Things often fall through the cracks, emails get missed, and the Friday after Thanksgiving I even missed a podcast appointment (which still makes me cringe) because I got caught up in a prior podcast - however, most of the time, we work hard, don’t slack, and we work long hours. We do it because we enjoy it.

Being “goal” oriented.

I once read a study describing how goal-oriented people often defer short-term pleasure for long-term gain. This strategy requires setting big goals and working towards them in a focused and systematic way. Professionals, academics, people with multiple degrees, and managers are often goal-oriented.

Goal-oriented people are often rule followers. This is why so many physicians fell into the COVIDcrisis narrative.

Being goal-oriented means being able to break down a complex or challenging task into components and then working towards achieving these goals - until the bigger project is met. It can be taught, but also requires certain character traits, such as compliance with rules, attention to detail, self-control, the ability to work long hours, and a commitment to the long-term goal - whatever that may be.

Jill and I also consider ourselves to be high-agency.

High-agency is a trendy new term coined by Eric Weinstein. A search on Pubmed revealed no scientific or case studies that used the term as described by the popular press and media. This is no surprise, as the psychology profession is full of paradigms that typically materialize from their dogmas. Those paradigm shifts outside that dogma are rarely embraced and often denigrated, along with those who propose them. For example, take the term mass psychosis.

This is how an AI (Brave) describes “high agency”:

High Agency refers to an individual’s ability to shape their own destiny, bend reality to their will, and exert control over their life and work. It involves recognizing that the limitations and constraints imposed by others are merely stories, and that one has the power to rewrite those narratives. People with High Agency are characterized by their:

1. Authenticity: They stay true to themselves, unapologetically pursuing their goals and values.

2. Intentionality: They set clear goals and take deliberate action to achieve them, rather than simply reacting to circumstances.

3. Proactivity: They don’t wait for opportunities to arise; they create their own, often finding innovative solutions to overcome obstacles.

4. Discipline: They prioritize their goals and make sacrifices to achieve them, demonstrating self-control and perseverance.

5. Resourcefulness: They adapt and improvise, leveraging available resources to overcome challenges and achieve their objectives.

6. Orthogonal Thinking: They challenge conventional wisdom, asking questions that look at problems from unconventional angles and finding novel solutions.

7. Resilience: They bounce back from setbacks and failures, using them as opportunities for growth and learning.

Why wouldn’t anyone work to become more high-agency? To pursue their goals and values at all costs- full speed ahead? High-agency people work to reinvent a narrative given to them to change outcomes. They get things done. They set out to do the impossible. Being goal-oriented is just one characteristic of being a high-agency person. But there is more to this than that:

Graphic from Shreyas Doshi on linked-in

.Jeff Bezos has even added to the discussion by describing how he identifies a high-agency mindset in others. He says that by just asking this one simple question, he can identify the high-agency people in his life:

“If you were stuck in a third-world prison and had to call one person to try and bust you out of there – who would you call?”.

Low-agency people accept the narrative; they are complacent and tend to outsource decision-making to others. They can have talent or not. The above graphic points out that low-agency, low-talent people are the worker bees and that people with talent but low agency are typically frustrated in their lives.

“When you’re told that something is impossible, is that the end of the conversation, or does that start a second dialogue in your mind, how to get around whoever it is that’s just told you that you can’t do something?”

– @EricRWeinstein

High-agency, Utilitarianism, and Ethical Plasticity

High-agency may be great for getting things done, but there can be a morally repugnant element to the behavior and characteristics of high-agency people. This element deserves closer examination. People who exhibit high-agency characteristics, whether learned as an adult or instilled since childhood, tend to ignore ethical mores. They can just charge ahead, disregarding obstacles, including ethical concerns. They often operate from within a utilitarian framework; in other words, one in which the ends are believed to justify the means. High-agency behaviors can also lead to a decrease or loss of empathy because the need to achieve an objective becomes a higher priority than taking other’s needs into account when making decisions. The deterioration or loss of empathy can lead to sociopathic behavior.

Many people who hire talent based on high-agency behavior profiles claim that it is essential also to identify those who exhibit integrity in addition to high-agency. But the truth is, integrity is an easy trait to mimic. Who doesn’t know that person who goes to church each Sunday and yet has a history of abusiveness, unethical business, or political practices?

When combined with talent, this “can do” attitude means that high-agency people understand that the world needs to believe that they are people of high integrity. It is a character trait that, at least on a resume, is important. And yet, manipulative behaviors are often employed by those with a high-agency behavior pattern. Unfortunately, those with high-agency profiles can be very good at camouflaging such tactics.

“Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way.”

―Sir David Frost

“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.” ― Winston S. Churchill

For political junkies, The Diplomat on Netflix is an excellent foray and exploration into complex, high-stakes, high-agency behavior and morality in the setting of international politics.

The truth is that high-agency people are highly desired in business because they can inspire others, motivate others, get people to buy into their new narrative, and create change and opportunity.

Not all people with high-agency behavioral profiles choose to go down this path. Some prefer independence and are highly motivated to stay out of the public sector. Being high-agency does not mean the same path for all. Many very independent thinkers and doers have high agency, and in many cases, they just have prioritized different elements in their lives, such as freedom of action and thought or independence from a bureaucratic system.

Transformational High-agency Leadership

High-agency people are often transformational leaders. Unfortunately, transformational leaders are often prone to narcissistic tendencies, which can lead to a cult-like following. This can be seen in the emergence of a cult of personality around a transformational leader when studying leadership examples. Risk-taking transformational leaders often find adulation flattering as well as helpful in overcoming barriers and motivating sycophants. Often, such leaders will not have any qualms about ditching those who brought them to the party once they achieve fame, wealth, power, or other objectives, as they recognize that today’s supporters and yes-men can become tomorrow’s competition.

It is the ability of the high-agency person to manipulate others while setting aside any moral qualms in their quest to achieve an objective that can make them dangerous to be around. Hence, long-term relationships are key. Determining whether a high-agency person is worthy of trust and support can become a constant high-stakes guessing game until sufficient time has elapsed and experience accumulated.

For myself, I am high-agency much of the time, but I temper that with a high moral compass. However, I am human; I recognize how easily a conflict of interest can seem like a moral imperative.

In myself, it is why I reject the adoration sometimes displayed towards me. I recognize how easily it is to manipulate others, how easy it could be to fall into support for developing a cult of personality around my actions and narrative, and I chose not to do so. I also know it when I see it. Recently, I have become aware of a person whom I consider a friend who has chosen to barrel down this path towards fame, and it fills me with sadness. I watch from afar the cult-like behavior of the followers that are being actively cultivated, and I grieve for my friend. My trust in this friend as a person may have been misplaced.

We all face so many tests, so many trials and tribulations, and in some cases, the crucible of time (and transient fame) can either transform a person into porcelain or decisions made and paths chosen may compromise integrity and soul. Such is life. The older I get, the more I observe, the more frequently I am reminded of the importance of carefully choosing what you wish for, because high-agency transformational leaders often achieve that which they seek. But in the achievement, they also frequently find that they become the ones transformed.

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“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state of the other.”

―C.S. Lewis