Boobesh

Agency > Intelligence I had this intuitively wrong for decades, I think due to a pervasive cultural veneration of intelligence, various entertainment/media, obsession with IQ etc. Agency is significantly more powerful and significantly more scarce. Are you hiring for agency? Are we educating for agency? Are you acting as if you had 10X agency? Grok explanation is ~close: “Agency, as a personality trait, refers to an individual's capacity to take initiative, make decisions, and exert control over their actions and environment. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive—someone with high agency doesn’t just let life happen to them; they shape it. Think of it as a blend of self-efficacy, determination, and a sense of ownership over one’s path. People with strong agency tend to set goals and pursue them with confidence, even in the face of obstacles. They’re the type to say, “I’ll figure it out,” and then actually do it. On the flip side, someone low in agency might feel more like a passenger in their own life, waiting for external forces—like luck, other people, or circumstances—to dictate what happens next. It’s not quite the same as assertiveness or ambition, though it can overlap. Agency is quieter, more internal—it’s the belief that you *can* act, paired with the will to follow through. Psychologists often tie it to concepts like locus of control: high-agency folks lean toward an internal locus, feeling they steer their fate, while low-agency folks might lean external, seeing life as something that happens *to* them.”

Adaptability > Strategy During times when “the law of displacement speed” kicks in, how many great ideas fail because leaders aren’t willing to make the tough decision to change strategy fast enough? I am seeing many passionate founders and promising startups (and some larger product teams) struggle to change things up, as if such shifts in strategy are an admission of weakness rather than an indication of self-awareness and boldness. Companies are particularly proud of resilient strategies that stay consistent over time, but should consistency be the goal during a Cambrian explosion? Playbooks cannot be sacred cows. On the contrary, they expire quickly when you’re working at the edge of what’s next. Sunk cost fallacy is a fatal blow during periods like the current platform shift to AI. I am reminded of an old leadership lesson around the difference between technical challenges and adaptive challenges. Technical challenges have a solution, you just need to change your technology. In contrast, with adaptive challenges YOU have to change. The world needs more adaptive leaders today. Be very open to switching it up…

i think it will be extremely difficult to live in any non-coastal city. I don't go to the beach every day, but knowing that I can gives me so much happiness.

I don't recall seeing this particular ad from Idea, back in the early 2000s. While I do remember this famous tune being an integral part of Idea Telecom (back then) advertising, this particular ad seems to have escaped my attention. The creative device is really, really 1/6