The Problem With Agency: George Mack

The Problem With...

James Smith

Society & Culture

4.9 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

George Mack joins James Smith for an unfiltered conversation that will change how you think about ambition, success, and the hidden traps of productivity. They dive deep into the concept of agency (why some people take control of their lives while others stay stuck) and how it shows up across business, relationships, happiness, and identity. From the “busy trap” to the myth of hustle culture, George unpacks the subtle ways we self-sabotage under the illusion of progress. He questions whether high agency is even healthy… or just a sophisticated form of burnout. James and George explore the psychology of success, the role of genetics, language and culture in shaping mindset, and how becoming a parent can snap you out of your grind obsession. He explains: ◼️ Why high agency can be a hidden mental illness ◼️ The real reason some people stay stuck (and how to escape) ◼️ How productivity becomes a trap disguised as progress ◼️ Why writing things down on a whiteboard might change your life ◼️ What jiu-jitsu teaches us about fear, ego, and self-awareness Timestamps: 00:00 The Problem With Low Agency 02:04 The Jail Cell Test 05:16 Can You Train Agency? 09:05 Context-Dependent Agency 15:15 Life in Austin, Texas 18:04 UK Cynicism vs American Naivety 24:06 The Happiness Paradox 30:02 Language Shapes Thinking 36:07 Hater or Inspired? The Choice Is Yours 42:07 The Busy Trap 46:03 The $1,500 Chicken Sandwich Story 51:34 Parenthood: The Ultimate Agency Hack 59:58 Jiu-Jitsu and Personal Growth 1:03:02 The Gap and The Gain 1:07:26 Warren Buffett's Investment Exercise 1:12:25 Practical Agency Hacks 1:17:20 The A1 Paper That Changed Everything 1:29:11 Eat Frogs, Lick Toads 1:32:35 Why Jiu-Jitsu Hits All Four Brain Chemicals 1:35:31 Closing Advice Welcome to "The Problem With" where each week we look into a problem to get a better understanding of it. This podcast has no sponsors, only my businesses and investments, please check out the links below. I'm on a mission to help men check their levels of Testosterone, more info here: https://www.manual.co/smith Please check out and try Neutonic here: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith For a free trial of my online personal training app go here: https://www.affordableonlinecoaching.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	George Mack, what is the problem with low agency?
0:03.4	It's a great question. So there's a funny way to answer that question, and then there's an
0:07.6	unfunny way to answer that question. So, I mean, the funny way to answer it is just to kind of
0:12.2	flip the question around, which is what is the problem with low agency? And low agency
0:17.7	slash high agency directly relates to two things. One, an individual's ability to
0:23.7	identify what problem they want to solve, which I kind of call like a live mode. And then two,
0:30.1	how they actually go about solving that problem, which is kind of solving like an alive problem,
0:35.1	something that's living and breathing. So your question kind of directly links to the answer, which is quite a funny thing. But the more unfunny one is
0:41.6	the regrets of the dying, I think it's probably where the palliative care lady who spent
0:48.3	time of hundreds of people that were kind of passing away at the final stages of life, whether
0:52.7	that's older people or terminally ill. And if you look at the five regrets of the dying, loosely off the top of my head, it's, I wish I had the courage to express my feelings, I wish I had the courage to live a life truer to myself, I wish I didn't work as hard, I wish I stayed in touch with my friends. What's the other one? I've forgotten the other one, actually. There's five of them. There's one more. But all four of them pretty much relate to something around low agency. So it revolves around kind of doing things. And then we could almost allude to the point that low agency would not be doing things. Now, I want to bring us back to when you, I think it was your first episode with Chris where you bought the cards.
1:30.1	Was that the first time or the first high production episode?
1:32.7	No hard sealings that I've been in business with Chris for two years.
1:35.5	Never had a high production episode.
1:36.7	Right.
1:36.9	We're not going to bring that up here.
1:38.8	But you came so well prepared.
1:41.5	And even when you had these visual cards to help people understand,
1:44.7	I stopped the episode and I had to message you directly and say,
1:48.1	mate, this is incredible.
1:50.1	The preparation that you had for that.
1:51.9	And the example you used is now how I tell people about this.
	...

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