Sunday Reads #190: There are no gatekeepers.
Except yourself, that is.
Hey there! (and to recent subscribers, welcome!)
Hope you’re having a great weekend.
If you missed last week’s newsletter, here it is: What matters isn’t how often you’re right (it’s what you do when you’re right).
Shorter Sunday Reads this week.
Over the last few weeks, I have been thinking a lot about one particular personality trait: High Agency. Let’s talk about that.
1. There are no gatekeepers.
What is High Agency?
It's best summed up by this image:
And this tweet:
As Shreyas Doshi says:
High Agency is about finding a way to get what you want, without waiting for conditions to be perfect or otherwise blaming the circumstances.
High Agency People either push through in the face of adverse conditions or manage to reverse the adverse conditions to achieve goals.
A couple of reads on how to foster High Agency:
How to Be More Agentic by Cate Hall.
Why listen to Cate? Because she has high agency.
I’ve done a bunch of cool stuff in different domains: I was a Supreme Court advocate and the number one female poker player in the world; started art and perfume companies; and led operations at Alvea, a pandemic medicine company I co-founded, when it set the record for the fastest startup to take a drug to clinical trials.
All of these things I did in my 30s.
In her article, she shares some of the ways in which we all can be more agentic. By leaning in to difficult things where others might give up.
I also liked Shreyas Doshi's thread on cultivating high agency.
Further Reading:
Sometimes, asking the right question can push people towards more powerful, agentic behaviors.
I talk about that in The right question is a force multiplier.
A large part of low agency is a feeling of being constrained. "I can't do this, because <situation or person x> won't allow me to."
Far too often, these constraints are not real. They are just beliefs. Limiting beliefs. I wrote about that in Stop trying to hit me, and hit me!.
This article was in the context of venture capital, but it applies more broadly too. An excerpt:
There’s an amazing scene in Game of Thrones’ first season where a mercenary named Bronn fights a knight named Ser Vardis in a “trial by combat”.
...the contrast between their fighting styles is stark. Ser Vardis fights, well… very knightly and proper, while Bronn scraps-and-brawls his way to survival.
In the end, Bronn skewers Ser Vardis and tosses him out of the conveniently located floating-castle-garbage-disposal.
... [Lysa Arryn] scolds Bronn for his fighting style and sets him up for one of the series’ great one-liners:
Lysa Arryn: You don’t fight with honor!
Bronn: No, but he did.
Don't try to win. Win.
Before we continue, a quick note:
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2. Chart of the Week.
I've seen this chart everywhere on the Internet this week.
As per Paul Graham, this trend has a boringly obvious explanation:
Boys and girls used to hang out together more. The girls made the boys more liberal and the boys made the girls more conservative. But now the boys are at home playing shooter games, and the girls are at home posting on Instagram.
But Alice Evans' explanation feels most complete:
Across much of the world, men and women think alike.
However, in countries that are economically developed and culturally liberal, young men and women are polarising. As chronicled by John Burn-Murdoch, young women are increasingly likely to identify as ‘progressives’ and vote for leftists, while young men remain more conservative. What explains this global heterogeneity?
I suggest,
Men and women tend to think alike in societies where there is:
1. Close-knit interdependence, religosity and authoritarianism, or
2. Shared cultural production and mixed gendered offline socialising.
Gendered ideological polarisation appears encouraged by:
1. Feminised public culture
2. Economic resentment
3. Social media filter bubbles
4. Cultural entrepreneurs.
3. Fortune at the Top of the Pyramid.
I read this on twitter last week:
Mercedes sells about 2M vehicles each year, about the same as Maruti Suzuki.
But Mercedes makes $160Bn of revenue, 10x of Maruti Suzuki which makes $15Bn.
Quite incredible how selling to the top of the global pyramid is disproportionately more lucrative versus the middle.
My boss likes to say, "the luxury business is the best business". One can see why.
If you play it right, the pricing power of a luxury product never reduces. It often becomes stronger as the decades roll by.
And what do I mean by "Play it right"?
Simple. Just create and maintain exclusivity.
4. Innovation is alive and well - Part 2.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about an amazing trailblazer of 21st century innovation. I'm speaking, of course, of Doritos.
I'm glad that AI has helped companies do more for consumers.
For example, how else would we get... Doritos Crunch Cancellation Software?
While PepsiCo’s Doritos chips are popular with gamers, the loud crunch they make has long been a source of frustration.
The beverage and snacking giant estimated that 85% percent of U.S. gamers have consumed Doritos in the past three months. But at the same time, nearly a third of individuals reported that other people’s crunching distracts them from playing well and impacts their performance.
To “help gamers keep the crunch to themselves,” Doritos is debuting what it calls “Doritos Silent.” Gamers download Doritos Crunch Cancellation software and when the technology is turned on, the software detects the crunching sounds and silences it while keeping the gamer’s voice intact.
The software, which took six months to develop, used artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze more than 5,000 different crunch sounds.
Well, looks like Doritos is at it again! With liquor this time.
Nacho Cheese Doritos have been a staple of the snack food aisle for nearly half a century. Now, they’re headed to the liquor shelf.
In a most unconventional crossover, the iconic tortilla chip brand has partnered with Empirical Spirits to release an 84-proof clear liquor that actually smells and tastes like the real thing, minus the signature crunch — thankfully. Which is to say, it’s unlike any alcohol you’ve ever smelled or tasted before. And we don’t mean that in a bad way.
Finally, we all can have nice things 🌮🍾.
5. This is a good tweet 🤣.
That’s it for this week. Hope you enjoyed it.
As always, stay safe, healthy and sane, wherever you are.
I’ll see you next week.
Jitha
[A quick request - if you liked today’s newsletter, I’d appreciate it very much if you could forward it to one other person who might find it useful 🙏].
The idealogical gap chart is really thought provoking. I'm honestly surprised to see that it's a consistent trend internationally... great write-up!
Cant understand why women still becoming more liberal. Perhaps men have had enough of masculinity being mocked! What else explains rise of J Peterson etc.