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Modern Wisdom

#919 - George Mack - How To Take Control Of Your Own Destiny

Mon, 24 Mar 2025

Description

George Mack is a writer, marketer and an entrepreneur. If you found yourself trapped in a South American prison, who's the first person you'd call? The person you named is likely the highest-agency individual in your life. So, what exactly makes high-agency people so valuable, and what essential skills can you learn from them to apply to your own life? Expect to learn what high agency is and what makes people with high agency so special, who the apex example of a high agency person is, the one question you should ask yourself to find the person with the most high agency in your life, the 4 key skills of a high agency person, the core techniques of some one who is high agency and much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get $350 off the Pod 4 Ultra at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get the best bloodwork analysis in America at https://functionhealth.com/modernwisdom Get a Free Sample Pack of all LMNT Flavours with your first purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom Get a 20% discount on the best supplements from Momentous at https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Extra Stuff: Read George's essay at www.highagency.com Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcription

What is high agency and why does it matter?

00:00 - 00:11 Chris Williamson

This is a long time coming, I think. Agency, since we've been talking, is the topic, the thing that we've both been obsessed with the most. So introduce people to it. What's high agency?

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00:12 - 00:29 George Mack

High agency is, in my opinion, the most under-discussed and most important idea in, let's say, the 21st century. It's one of those ideas that once you see it, you can't quite unsee it. It's everywhere. But the problem with it is is it's quite hard to define.

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00:29 - 00:47 George Mack

And there's that Justice Potter Stewart line of around when he was trying to define pornography, when he was asked in a government inquiry, can you define pornography? And he came back with the ultimate reply of, well, I can't define it, but I know it when I see it. So in lieu of the episode today, I know you rent out all these beautiful studios.

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00:47 - 00:55 George Mack

I wanted to be the first guest ever to bring some props. You brought props. To kind of get people to experience high agency and then we can define it with words.

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00:00 - 00:00 Chris Williamson

All right, cool.

00:00 - 00:00 George Mack

first off is high agency in a meme okay so as you can see here you have person a and person b and essentially for the people that are listening you have two people trapped on a desert island identical people but with two different fundamental frames of reality one is using the wood to get help the other is using the wood to kind of escape the island

00:00 - 00:00 George Mack

And you kind of see this idea that two people with exact same fundamental realities, but a completely different, like low agency here, high agency here. So you see high agency in a meme there. Then, and this one was quite difficult to get printed in London without people asking questions, is high agency... high agency in a moment.

00:00 - 00:00 George Mack

So again, for the people listening, you have a series of Nazis saluting to Hitler in 1936. And you have this guy in red here, who's believed, there's debate who it is, but he's believed to be a guy called August Landmasser. What I love about his story was he originally, like most people have this idea that when Nazi Germany comes around, that they're going to be the one.

00:00 - 00:00 George Mack

that puts Anne Frank in their house and stands up. But realistically, we're way more likely to be these individuals here. And according to the story, August was part of the Nazi party, kind of went along with the LARP because it kind of made sense, fell in love with a Jewish woman and very much, okay, began to hit an agency test with reality.

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