contraptions

@chasews

2026-08-29 — saved image

chase @chasews · 4h

This reminds me of @vgr's comments on what it means to be "agentic" versus "principalic" and one of the core tenets of being a principal rather than an agent is that you "choose what to waste"

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Venkatesh Rao · 2d · Contraptions [Subscribe]

I'm not very agentic and don't want to be. Having experienced Claude Code for a few months, it strikes me as the right way to be. Being agentic is for machines. Humans should be principalic (**ducks***).

The human meme of "you can just do things" I think was not about agency at all, but about being socially transgressive once the costs got sufficiently low (ie: E(reward_of_successful_permissionless_action) > E(penalty_for_forgiveness_for_failed_action) > pain threshold). This is largely a function of social privilege and general liberalism of milieu, not individual virtue. There's a reason why the main criticism of that whole meme was that the transgression equation only worked safely for some people.

A better definition of "agentic" is the economics one in the principal-agent sense. Simply having asymmetric information and capability to do things for others. It is downstream of intentionality, risk assumption, and permissions — principalic aspects of behavior. Agenticity is increasingly only for machines.

With apologies to Heinlein, (Human beings should be able to act like principals)^6. Being agentic is for ~~insects~~ AI harnesses.

What does acting like a principal mean? What does it mean to be principalic?

1. Choosing what risks to take, including for others, all the way to death risk
2. Applying your tastes and opinions to an under-determined decision, reserving all underdetermined variables for yourself
3. Having a consumption intent for the end output rather than instrumental
4. Cashing out design space surplus to feed arbitrary aesthetic impulses
5. Choosing what to waste
6. Choosing arbitrary things to pursue in the first place (the pursuit of the necessary or sufficient is for agentic drones)

Notably, exercising skill (the craft impulse) and applying knowledge (the intelligence impulse) are not part of being principalic. If you've ever hung around second-generation wealth, you'll have noticed that they are actively offended by the idea that they know stuff or have learned to do stuff. Intelligence is low status. What is admired is 1-5.

[second quoted tweet]
kache @yacineMTB · 5h
my increase in productivity has been so severe that it has been quite hard for me. the opportunity cost of me not working is very, very high. any time i consider doing anything else*, i simply don't do it. ... [cut off]

agencyprincipal-agentvenkatesh raoclaude codeproductivitycontraptions