If It Annoys You Twice Fix It
A few months ago I was watching an episode of Chef’s Table: Legends on Netflix. The one with Jamie Oliver. Watching a 24-year-old Oliver talk about food is riveting. He preaches simple, healthy food in its most natural form at the very start of his career. His first cookbook and TV show focus on this theme. He showed such passion at an insanely young age for something so clear, so simple, and so pure.
It almost feels like Oliver always knew these things and was just waiting for the moment to talk about the obvious truth that nobody else understood.
I watched the rest of this episode in a bit of a daze, to be honest. The pure passion that I witnessed in such a young person absolutely floored me. At 41 years old, what am I so certain of? What am I so confident in that I would be willing to write a new book, pitch a TV show and stand on stages across the world? What is the thing that I deeply understand that could change the world?
I came up with nothing.
Months of thinking, analysing, probing, studying, researching, talking to friends and… nothing. Not a fucking thing.
So I just carried on living my life.
Then a few months later I ordered a pair of shoes that didn’t fit as expected. Don’t you hate it when you’ve been wearing a certain brand - cough, New Balance, cough - for years and years, and you order the exact same size that you’ve ordered for years and years, but the shoe suddenly doesn’t fit? Me too. But I loved these shoes, so I decided to investigate why this particular shoe doesn’t fit me vs my previous 20 or 30 pairs. I discovered that it’s not me, it’s the shoe. They added some extra (unwanted) padding to the heel of the shoe. This extra padding pushes the foot forward and shoves the big toe to the front of the shoe, cramming your foot in there aggressively.
I did not return those shoes, though.
I studied the shoe. I asked my AI buddy what went into the foam, how the heels are usually made, and if I wanted to remove the heel padding, how would I do that.
And then I cut the shoe.
I cut that bastard padding right out of the heel of those shoes, taped up the hole, and slipped my foot into the shoe. It fit!
And in that exact moment, it hit me.
High agency.
That’s what I know. That’s what I understand. That’s what I do more than most people. That’s what I’ve been doing since I can remember. That’s what I’ve been doing with the AI tools we discuss in every newsletter.
I act with ultra high agency.
When there is a vacuum, I fill it.
When I want to start a business, I do.
When I wanted to move countries, I moved… twice.
When there is uncertainty, I am certain. Good or bad, I act with agency at every possible turn.
When people look at me, they often see arrogance, but those are low-agency NPCs who don’t know how to take action. I see that now!
If you have high agency, you can just do things — and that’s exactly how I live. I just do things.
In a world of infinite knowledge available at the lowest possible price, and all these new AI tools that engage your curiosity, the only differentiator between you and average Joe in the back is high agency. Taking action matters more today than ever before. I am certain of this.
So yes, we’re going to explore AI tools in this newsletter, but we’re also going to start talking about how to engage your own high agency. How to recognise it in others. How to tell the difference between good and bad agency. How your teams can foster agency, and how leaders can promote and nurture high agency in their organisations.
Mediocre is over, folks. AI is better than the most mediocre human already. That means that mediocre doesn’t even get you into the game. You know what does? That’s right: high agency gets you into the game. Hell, high agency tells other people what game they’re playing.
I haven’t been this excited about my focus in a long time. Wait, no, I haven't been this excited since I started building things with AI tools. The combination of AI tools + high agency is the future for those willing to step up. Let's figure it out together in this newsletter.
I have built a series of new virtual keynotes that I’m selling already. Teams are desperate to understand how to take back their agency.
I am writing a new book about high agency; how it built the world and how individuals can live a high-agency life, like mine.
You can follow me on LinkedIn if you want more frequent content focused on high agency in the workplace.
This newsletter is going to talk about how AI can empower your own high agency.
Going forward, I want you to embrace one new rule: if it annoys you twice, fix it yourself.
—
Nic,
The High Agency Guy
Here’s a list of a few ways I used AI this week.
Animated GIF creation – stitched ten stylistic variations into a smooth looping animation for website hero section.
Headline experimentation – created polarising, debate-starting headlines and subheads for a landing page, pushing into provocative territory.
Reddit audience mapping – found niche communities beyond the obvious for marketing of a side project.
Travel route planning – identified optimal lunch spots and stopovers for road trip.
Podcast outreach ideas – explored ways to identify and engage podcast hosts
Existential/nihilistic research – pulled themes and references for deeper thought leadership and writing inspiration.
Kindle ebook troubleshooting – fixed formatting issues and suggested alternative ways to read difficult ebook files.
Comedy series recommendations – surfaced new viewing options after finishing a recent show.
Car rental comparisons – quickly sourced and compared rental options for road trip.
Copy roasting and upgrades – took mediocre website copy and turned it into sharp, high-converting messaging for your keynote business.
To hold myself accountable I want to share updates about my side projects every newsletter.
New
My focus is still on Savistash, 2 paying users which means this is a now profitable and sustainable side project!
GriefGuide.me - not live yet but coming soon.
Significant progress
Decision Tracker - 248 users, 12 likes and 3 comments. No new updates or releases yet but I’m still keen on this one.
Still running
GoodGoodweeds - Changed the name and still tracking my own weed reviews until I can get this out in the world! A weed review site. Early development and currently testing out Leafy to see if it's worth me even pursuing Goodweeds.
StumbleSong - No change. Still around, still working but I haven't made any changes this month.
1000fifteen - An app to help me learn the 1000 most frequently spoken Dutch words and speak basic sentences.
Deadpool
Splitville - I give up on this one.
Flirtbot - Moved to deadpool, dating apps have started adding this functionality natively.
PositionMe - Moved to deadpool. I think monetising this would be too complex. An app for couples who want to try new sex positions. You both rate various positions and the app then suggests the most compatible options to you to try.
BucketListAssist - Added to the deadpool May 2025. Too complex for me to stay engaged.
Pixeldash - Added to the deadpool - 20 April 2025. I don’t want to build games. While this is still live on the domain, no progress has been made and I’ve decided game dev is fun for the weekends but I want to spend my time on solving problems.