context: I basically want this one to be less therapy/inner work related and actually more in the spirit of productivity/amplifying our abilities/viewing AI as tools to expand our sense of agency. Part of the essay is adding commentary that the difference between non-AI technology and AI technology is not that big. Like - we’ve already been using technology to expand our sense of agency, now it’s just more noticeable and turbocharged. Then, I want to cover a few use cases for myself because the real stories and practical details will help cement the core ideas.
Conversational Nature of Reality - David Whyte
- define it
- define the AI-enhanced version
Guiding Question(s)
- How does the rise of AI impact our sense of agency? In what ways can we become more agentic?
- How to use AI to increase self-efficacy?
- How to use AI to increase optimism?
- How to use AI help us imagine?
In the literature, the state of agency is defined as the amalgamation of three psychological conditions: self-efficacy, optimism, and imagination.
- Self-efficacy: the belief we can achieve a specific goal now
- Optimism: the belief that we can achieve that goal in the future
- Imagination: the belief we can achieve a variety of goals we set our mind to
Ideas
- more case study / how I use AI tools for enhancing my agency
- reference Reid Hoffman’s Uber example as how it can be perceived as losing agency or increasing agency
- mention existing tools that we leverage so that we can have more agency
- phone calculator app when calculating tip at restaurants (slightly embarrassing lol)
- Google Maps so we don’t need to memorize directions or carry around a physical map
- Airpods Pro with voice isolation - so that I can take meetings while walking outside without any disruption
- With AI the gap between idea<>action is collapsing rapidly
- I can go from question → Perplexity giving me the answer immediately
- I can go from essay idea → voice memo to Claude → somewhat decent outline in minutes
- Coding tools like Windsurf allow any develop to turbocharge their ideas
- What is getting less valuable
- Knowledge
- Memorization
- Precision in writing, coding, etc. because AI can edit/correct your mistakes