You have the capacity to take action, to make choices, and to exercise control over your environment and personal circumstances.
To some readers, that statement, if not obvious, is one they immediately and unquestioningly agree with. To others, it may be words of affirmation at best, or a point of absolute contention.
Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of opinions, the underlying topic of agency has become increasingly important as we traverse the modern technological and ideological renaissance.
There is one fundamental characteristic unique to each and every one of us that will determine success: your perceived locus of control.
A term popularized by American psychologist, Julian Rotter, “locus of control” refers to the location (locus) you believe control over your life to exist. People who believe that life is controlled by outside factors believe in an external locus of control. Those who believe to be in control of their own lives despite external circumstances believe in an internal locus of control. To exclusively believe one or the other to be absolutely true would be naive. The reality is better described as a ratio but one largely dictated by personal belief.
The rate at which job markets, education systems, technology, and corporate structures are evolving coupled with the increasingly disruptive and unabated change brought on by the increasing ubiquity of artificial intelligence makes one thing absolutely true: people who believe in an internal locus of control will succeed.
This is not to say that their counterparts are relegated to failure. On the contrary, this statement is an invitation to reassess your perceived degree of agency.
Anthropic, the AI company that developed Claude, underscores this very point in their recent ad campaign where they say, “There has never been a better time to have a problem.”
This depicts the reality of the human condition: we are both subject to life’s circumstances, and capable of exercising control and influence.
AI is the greatest equalizer that has ever existed on the face of the planet. Your degree, credentials, pedigree, and starting abilities are far less relevant as determinants of success. For this reason alone, AI-native thinking has become an indispensable prerequisite to success but it must be coupled with the characteristics that make us human.
Your degree of proactivity, your ability to critically think, your ability to articulate ideas, distinguish between responsibilities to assume and tasks to delegate, your ability empathize and sympathize with others, these are the skills that AI cannot replicate. These are the skills that we must hone.
What do these skills have in common? They are all exercises that treat an internal locus of control as an assumed truth and an unquestionable fact.
There has never been a better time to build, to engineer, and to solve. The implied task, however, is to do it.
