Agency

I came across an old post on X from Andrej Karpathy that simply said: Agency > Intelligence. I’m sure he’s not the first to draw that comparison, but it was the first time I’d seen it framed so cleanly. It stuck with me because I’ve spent the past few years thinking about traits that make people effective, both in myself and in others.

For a long time, two ideas kept resurfacing: grit and a bias toward action. Grit, the willingness to stay with something longer than is comfortable. Bias toward action, the instinct to move instead of waiting for perfect information. I’ve always admired those traits, maybe because I’ve seen how they quietly shape outcomes.

When I became a manager, that perspective widened. I started noticing how some people, regardless of skill or experience, found ways to keep momentum ... they made decisions, cleared blockers, kept things moving. Others, even when highly capable, would stall in loops of overthinking or hesitation. It was rarely about intelligence. More often, it came down to whether they believed they could, or should ... act.

That’s why Karpathy’s word agency resonated so strongly with me. It felt broader, more complete. Agency isn’t just motion for motion’s sake. It’s ownership. It’s the belief that what happens next partly depends on you ... and then behaving accordingly. If bias toward action gets you to move, agency gets you to move with intent.

I must admit though, that sometimes I wrestle with this idea. My faith reminds me that I’m not in ultimate control ... that there’s a sovereignty bigger than my plans. So it's hard for me to see agency as claiming power over outcomes. The only way for me to reconcile this is to conclude that it seems more about participation: showing up, acting faithfully ... even when I can’t steer everything. There have been seasons when life feels like it’s just happening to me, and yet even then, there’s usually something small I can still do. Maybe that’s where agency really lives ... in choosing my response when I can’t choose the circumstances.

I’ve also often felt the tension between wanting to perfect an idea … and knowing it’s better to get something out that simply works. Intelligence wants to refine; agency wants to release. The art, I think, is in knowing when to stop thinking and start moving.

Karpathy ends his tweet by asking, Are you acting as if you had 10× agency? Maybe acting with 10× agency just means choosing to move even when you don’t have every answer ... trusting that clarity often follows action.

It seems to me that agency doesn’t replace intelligence, grit or a bias toward action; it gives them direction. Intelligence helps you think clearly. Grit helps you endure. A bias toward action helps you start. But agency ... that decision to act, to own, to move ... is what quietly turns all three into results.