George Mack wrote an incredible, inspiring, convicting, amazing webpage long-form article High Agency in 30 Minutes in April of 2025. Here’s what I wrote about it back then.

A few weeks ago he posted this great follow-up 9 fun ways to increase your agency with zero grinding required — it’s a great article, and you should read the whole thing. My two favorite points he makes are:

6. If in doubt, use the story razor – When stuck with two equal options you can’t decide between, ask: What option makes for a more interesting story? Good stories require characters who act. High agency is just another word for being the executive producer of your life. Act as if it’s you at a dinner party five years from now, telling the story. Enhance the plot. Don’t forget Dostoevsky’s golden rule: “But how could you live and how no story to tell?!”.

7. Work less. Focus more – A good rule of thumb I want tattooed on my brain: working hard is overpriced, focusing hard is underpriced. Most of our lives are spent inside the Grove Trap: “There are so many people working so hard, and achieving so little” – Andy Grove. One door out of the Grove Trap is deep mode: Focus 90% of your work hours for 2-4 weeks on your number one bottleneck. Most people context-switch between C-tier tasks all day—emails, meetings, small fixes. They never identify the A-tier task, much less focus on it. One month of clear-minded focus beats a year of distracted hustle grindset.