How to Be More Agentic
Source: https://usefulfictions.substack.com/p/how-to-be-more-agentic Author: Cate Hall Date: 2025-12-24
Summary
Essay on human agency in the AI era — specifically, how to cultivate the disposition to act rather than wait. Cate Hall (poker player turned AI researcher) argues that “agentiveness” is a learnable skill, not a personality trait. Relevant as a counterpoint to AI agent discussions.
Key Claims
- Agentiveness = the tendency to take initiative rather than wait for permission or clarity.
- Most people underestimate how much room exists to act in ambiguous situations — they wait for permission that isn’t coming.
- Concrete practices: (1) do the obvious next thing immediately; (2) ask for what you want directly; (3) treat “no information” as “permission to proceed.”
- AI agents lack agentiveness by default — they wait for instructions, ask clarifying questions, hedge. Training agentiveness into AI is non-trivial.
- The skill translates: people who are agentic in their personal lives build better agentic AI systems — they intuitively understand what “just do it” means.
Entities
- Cate Hall — AI safety researcher, ex-professional poker player
Concepts
- Coding Agents — agentiveness as key design goal for agents
- Autonomous Research — agentiveness is prerequisite for autonomous research