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Dr. William Stixrud and Ned Johnson on Developing Confidence and Finding Purpose | You Never Know What Someone is Going Through
The Daily Stoic
The Importance of Agency
When I moved from Seattle to DC in 1984 I was stunned by this what I considered to be an insane Prooccupation with grades and elite schools Given that there didn't seem to be much of a correlation between grades and success in later life. One kid said we're told if we if we get into a good enough college everything is set Which couldn't be farther from the truth, he says. Bill: Agency and a lack thereof is actually at the root of a lot of the problems that we have as a society today.
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Speaker 1
I don't see that. Yeah Oh, sorry, so uh, uh, uh bill why don't you go first? Saying that um
Speaker 3
That when I moved from Seattle to DC in 1984 I was stunned by this what I considered to be an insane Prooccupation with grades and elite schools Given that there didn't at that time They didn't seem to be much of a correlation between grades and success in later life And it seemed to make much difference where you go to college And just before the pandemic I was lecturing and Houston about our book and two things happened I lectured to I spoke with some high school students who were on the student government in an elite independent school And I asked these kids how many of you want to be happy as adults and they all kind of sheepishly raised their hand And this one kid said and I said what what do people tell you about what it takes to be happy as an adult And this one kid says we're told if we if we get into a good enough college everything is set Which couldn't be farther from the truth if you look at the mental health problems and all the elite colleges are off the charts And also I was given a lecture at another group Yeah, I mentioned an elite school high school in DC And this woman came up to me afterward and said I'm a psychotherapist at the manager clinic here a mental health clinic here in Houston We know the school really well because so many of the graduates get into these elite colleges But they can't handle them emotionally And so they cut they take a medical leave and they come here for treatment And what she said is that none of them have the experience of dealing with hard stuff And they they kind of been driven by this kind of really this kind of false narrative that the most important thing is your grades and your resume And not you as a person We opened by defining this idea of being
Speaker 1
self-driven the other word that appears a lot in the books and and and bill Let's let's go with you first This idea of agency. I feel like that is a word that Not a lot of people understand they use it incorrectly, but it also I would say Agency and a lack thereof is actually at the root of a lot of the problems that we have as a society today But either perceived lack of agency or actual lack of agency, but at the core society depends on agency
Speaker 3
Well,
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