Agency > Intelligence
Original excerpt
Agency > Intelligence I had this intuitively wrong for decades, I think due to a pervasive cultural veneration of intelligence, various entertainment/media, obsession with IQ etc. Agency is significantly more powerful and significantly more scarce. Are you hiring for agency? Are we educating for agency? Are you acting as if you had 10X agency? Grok explanation is ~close: “Agency, as a personality trait, refers to an individual's capacity to take initiative, make decisions, and exert control over their actions and environment. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive—someone with high agency doesn’t just let life happen to them; they shape it. Think of it as a blend of self-efficacy,…
Frequently asked questions
What is "Agency > Intelligence" about?
This article by Andrej Karpathy is part of the Andrej Karpathy reading list on Burn 451, covering ai agents.
Who wrote "Agency > Intelligence"?
This piece is part of the Andrej Karpathy vault on Burn 451, covering ai agents. The original author is attributed at the source link.
How can I read more content from Andrej Karpathy?
The complete Andrej Karpathy reading list is available at burn451.cloud/vault/karpathy. Each article includes an AI-generated summary so you can decide what to read in seconds. Connect the Burn 451 MCP server to Claude or Cursor to query all Andrej Karpathy articles as live AI context.
Can I use "Agency > Intelligence" with Claude or Cursor?
Yes. Install the burn-mcp-server npm package and connect it to Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor. Once connected, your AI can search and reference this article and the full Andrej Karpathy vault in real time — no manual copy-paste required.
37 more articles in this vault.
Import the full Andrej Karpathy vault to Burn 451 and build your own knowledge base.
Content attributed to the original author. Burn 451 curates publicly available writing as a reading index. For removal requests, contact @hawking520.