speaking as someone who's also been self employed most of my life, the "why is everyone so bad at their jobs" plagues me to no end. i've had fantasies just like your very life - go into an institution i care about and try to fix their mess so i can enjoy without worrying about their imminent financial ruin. Genuinely an inspirational read - heroic agency does work. Not just in technology and startups but everywhere in every industry. Even those as fuzzy as art galleries.
An interesting read. I particularly liked this idea: “They are able to keep track of their values and be attuned to themselves, and at the same time be cold-headed about how the world works: not shaping themselves to fit the world, but figuring out how to position what they do so that it becomes possible.”
Well done. Yes, please do continue by writing about what you learned about making art, what you learned from the volunteers, and anything else that came out of your experience there.
It's always interesting to read about others' work, so thank you for sharing about yours in such detail. The most insightful bit was the one about figuring out your place in the incentive landscape—its seems like a mysterious matter of chance coupled with constantly trying and form fitting. When you find that spot, though, it can be like striking gold I imagine.
Would love to read about the high-agency 70-year olds and making art, too!
"There are places in the incentive landscape where the incentives are aligned with your values" --
This is much like something I've told lots of young fiction writers: You should have more story ideas than you could possibly write. Pick the ones other people will want to hear. You don't have to compromise your art to become popular as long as there's still one story left that you'd like to tell, and a lot of people would like to hear.
(And if there isn't, try writing a popular story you think you don't want to tell. Odds are it will become interesting once you realize how hard it is to do it well!)
Re: "There are places in the incentive landscape where the incentives are aligned with your values, and your job is to find them": I would love to see some concrete examples of this - this feels like an interesting and valuable concept that I currently don't quite grok for lack of specific examples
"Most people just seem to come up with an answer in their head and then go with that without checking."
Why do they do this though? For what reason does this occur? It's been my experience as well that when people are asked to solve difficult problems they very frequently just take a wild guess at what the answer ought to be and proceed on that basis - like they're constantly surprised by the fact that you can actually look things up. It seems like you can get bizarrely far in these organisations just by having the most basic understanding of what "research" is.
Also very tired of people deciding that it's somehow morally wrong to do the budget. It seems like the common thread here is decision makers having a strong sense of what "ought" to be true and being endlessly helplessly confused when their intuitions don't correspond with reality.
Beautiful. I must hear more about high agency 70 year olds!
I'd love to read more about: the joy of the weight.
Great read Henrik. Wish you success and continued learning on your present and future projects.
speaking as someone who's also been self employed most of my life, the "why is everyone so bad at their jobs" plagues me to no end. i've had fantasies just like your very life - go into an institution i care about and try to fix their mess so i can enjoy without worrying about their imminent financial ruin. Genuinely an inspirational read - heroic agency does work. Not just in technology and startups but everywhere in every industry. Even those as fuzzy as art galleries.
An interesting read. I particularly liked this idea: “They are able to keep track of their values and be attuned to themselves, and at the same time be cold-headed about how the world works: not shaping themselves to fit the world, but figuring out how to position what they do so that it becomes possible.”
Well done. Yes, please do continue by writing about what you learned about making art, what you learned from the volunteers, and anything else that came out of your experience there.
It's always interesting to read about others' work, so thank you for sharing about yours in such detail. The most insightful bit was the one about figuring out your place in the incentive landscape—its seems like a mysterious matter of chance coupled with constantly trying and form fitting. When you find that spot, though, it can be like striking gold I imagine.
Would love to read about the high-agency 70-year olds and making art, too!
It's inspiring to read how you made your job meaningful. I am also trying to find my vectors that align!
"There are places in the incentive landscape where the incentives are aligned with your values" --
This is much like something I've told lots of young fiction writers: You should have more story ideas than you could possibly write. Pick the ones other people will want to hear. You don't have to compromise your art to become popular as long as there's still one story left that you'd like to tell, and a lot of people would like to hear.
(And if there isn't, try writing a popular story you think you don't want to tell. Odds are it will become interesting once you realize how hard it is to do it well!)
escape to my world
no problem, you've started living
Re: "There are places in the incentive landscape where the incentives are aligned with your values, and your job is to find them": I would love to see some concrete examples of this - this feels like an interesting and valuable concept that I currently don't quite grok for lack of specific examples
Loved this article. Wish you the best of luck with your writing. Keep going!
"Most people just seem to come up with an answer in their head and then go with that without checking."
Why do they do this though? For what reason does this occur? It's been my experience as well that when people are asked to solve difficult problems they very frequently just take a wild guess at what the answer ought to be and proceed on that basis - like they're constantly surprised by the fact that you can actually look things up. It seems like you can get bizarrely far in these organisations just by having the most basic understanding of what "research" is.
Also very tired of people deciding that it's somehow morally wrong to do the budget. It seems like the common thread here is decision makers having a strong sense of what "ought" to be true and being endlessly helplessly confused when their intuitions don't correspond with reality.
Very insightful and inspiring. Thanks so much.
Btw, you have no lesson #5, but just two lessons #6 ;)
What a great article, thank you for this!