I found this Substack after searching for more works related to Cate Hall’s “How to Be More Agentic” article which I found last night and is one of the best things I’ve read in a while.
We seem to have several things and interests in common (similar age, family situation, goals, Christianity, etc). In the spirit of trying to be more agentic, I’d love to have a call with you (anonymous if that works better). I’d love to pick your brain on how this process is going for you. DM me on Substack if interested.
Interesting but think this process would just further degrade our ability to focus on one thing and enter a "flow state". I think our brains have switching costs and modern creations like twitter and processed food have become too good at manipulating/rewiring our dopamine reward systems. We should probably try to distance ourselves from that sort of manipulation, not lean into it.
> "We should put more effort into thinking about shaping our work environments to be as “addictive” as entertainment. Even at small margins, this would seem to be valuable for anyone struggling to stay focused."
This is an interesting idea, but I don't see how one can do deep, focused, meaningful work in this mode. I would think the constant context switching comes at a cost.
That being said, I've found myself working in these kinds of modes. For knowledge workers, juggling Slack + email + normal tasks is one way to do this. I found myself doing a lot of busy work, but not getting the important stuff done.
I found this Substack after searching for more works related to Cate Hall’s “How to Be More Agentic” article which I found last night and is one of the best things I’ve read in a while.
We seem to have several things and interests in common (similar age, family situation, goals, Christianity, etc). In the spirit of trying to be more agentic, I’d love to have a call with you (anonymous if that works better). I’d love to pick your brain on how this process is going for you. DM me on Substack if interested.
Interesting but think this process would just further degrade our ability to focus on one thing and enter a "flow state". I think our brains have switching costs and modern creations like twitter and processed food have become too good at manipulating/rewiring our dopamine reward systems. We should probably try to distance ourselves from that sort of manipulation, not lean into it.
> "We should put more effort into thinking about shaping our work environments to be as “addictive” as entertainment. Even at small margins, this would seem to be valuable for anyone struggling to stay focused."
This is an interesting idea, but I don't see how one can do deep, focused, meaningful work in this mode. I would think the constant context switching comes at a cost.
That being said, I've found myself working in these kinds of modes. For knowledge workers, juggling Slack + email + normal tasks is one way to do this. I found myself doing a lot of busy work, but not getting the important stuff done.