Editing High Agency (section)

== Origin ==

The term was introduced in [[Eric Weinstein on Challenging “Reality,” Working with Peter Thiel, and Destroying Education to Save It (YouTube Content)|a conversation between Eric Weinstein and Tim Ferriss]], where Eric described high agency individuals as those who, when told something is impossible, begin formulating ways to circumvent the limitation rather than accepting it. He used examples such as getting past a nightclub bouncer without credentials or starting a business without credit or experience. Weinstein framed this behavior as analogous to MacGyver-like thinking—resourceful, independent, and nonconformist.

<blockquote>
''Are you constantly... 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?''

— '''Eric Weinstein''', [[Eric Weinstein on Challenging “Reality,” Working with Peter Thiel, and Destroying Education to Save It (YouTube Content)|The Tim Ferriss Show]], 2016
</blockquote>

Weinstein argued that many high-agency individuals emerge from what he called "traumatic births"—experiences that force them to see through the inadequacies of social reality and into deeper structural truths. He emphasized that while this often happens by accident or necessity, it should be cultivated deliberately through alternative educational systems, rather than waiting for exceptional individuals to emerge by chance.