You Can Just Do Things
“If I had ten times the agency, what would I do?”
James Cameron directed three of the four highest grossing films of all time — Avatar, Avatar The Way of Water, and The Titanic. He is the second highest grossing film director behind Steven Spielberg, but Cameron’s path isn’t linear. He didn’t go to an illustrious film school or wasn’t born a child prodigy. It was the opposite.
After graduating high school, he enrolls in community college to study physics but drops out to be a truck driver and high school janitor. While driving his truck, he decides he wants to be a filmmaker. The only issue is he can’t afford film school. Undeterred by his financial restraints, he decides to learn filmmaking by frequenting the University of Southern California’s library, considered the best filmmaking school in the United States. The education isn’t free, but the library is.
His education plan was simple. He copied 300 page filmmaking dissertations into a binder and studied while driving his truck. He did it week after week for about six months.
“And I'm driving a truck, but I had these binders: Sodium process, blue screen, optical printing, film-stock emulsions, lenses, cinematography. I was going through this stuff, chapter and verse, and making my own notes and all that. I basically gave myself a college education in visual effects and cinematography while I was driving a truck.”
— James Cameron on his education
He married an undeniable passion to an unwavering will to teach himself filmmaking. Isn’t it crazy Cameron conceived, wrote, directed, and produced these movies by teaching himself about filmmaking? You can just do things.
Of course, some dismiss the notion that anyone can do what Cameron did, but if you’re high agency, the typical odds don’t concern you. The more high agency you are, the more you realize that you have enabled this situation and maintain the freedom to react how you desire. In a time when victimhood is rising, embracing agency has become a way to get ahead.
The mass adoption of automation has caused those two paths to emerge: victimhood and high agency. On one hand, you are afforded more opportunities than ever before. We have books, websites, YouTube videos, printers, newsletters, etc. about anything. If you want to go to your library and copy 300 page dissertations on optical printing, you can. The only charge is a few dollars and an hour of your time. However, the ugly path of automation is you can outsource everything and blame any missteps on anything but yourself.
People rely on fitness wearables to tell them how to feel rather than trusting the body they have lived in for years. The default has become to ask Perplexity, ChatGPT, or an AI system to tell us the truth rather, despite disclaimers emphasizing they aren’t 100% accurate, than seeing it as an opportunity to educate ourselves. People outsource their dating lives to algorithms. They convince themselves the algorithm is the issue and not their lack of agency when they lack a partner that satisfies their unrealistic arbitrary metrics.
Victimhood is a concern because every task can be automated and “remove” the responsibility. People think for themselves less when they can ask AI what is best. Need to draft a thank you email for an interview? Ask AI to do it. Concerned about texting back your crush because you might lack rizz or aura? AI will craft a response. If someone goes wrong, you don’t blame yourself you get to blame AI.
But I’d argue people know deep down the solution to their issues and don’t need technology to tell them. The blame is unproductive. As Chris Williamson, one of my favorite podcasters says,
“The magic is in the work you are avoiding.”
People know the answers. People know they can just do things. They realize they can ask for what they want and begin to find the answers to their problems. The idea of “what if” is worse than “no”. Having the courage to ask or go after goals, often, gets you most of the answers you want.
James Cameron could have delayed his dream to become a filmmaker. He could have sought all the advice and waited for the perfect time, postponing the search for the answers, but he knew what needed to be done. He realized he could do the thing and went to the library to make it happen. The beauty is it is never too late. Cameron's breakthrough came in 1984, at age 30, when Terminator earned $78 million, $239 million today, at the box office. He is still chugging at age 70 today.
I’ve always admired those who realize it’s never too late, late bloomers. They realize our best days are never behind us and go beyond our youth. They don’t need permission to start later. Society’s youth obsession is real, but these people laughed at the artificial deadline society tries to impose. Kristen Faulkner won a gold medal in cycling at 31, seven years after attending a free, introductory cycling clinic. Vera Wang designed her first dress at 40. J.K. Rowling was living in poverty on welfare when she published the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, at age 32. Morgan Freeman broke through at 50 when he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Street Smart. They embody what Matthew McConaughey says,
“But if we stay in process within ourselves in the joy of the doing, we will never choke at the finish line. Why? Because we aren't thinking of the finish line. Because we're not looking at the clock. We're not watching ourselves on the jumbotron performing the very act that we're in the middle of. No, we're in process. The approach is the destination and we're never finished.”
Always in process. Always realizing they can do things and act. Dreams have no expiration date. They are proof that agency never dies. A person can decide to start living no matter the age, or the destruction and obscurity they are in.
Some might call the realization we’re so back or locking in. Plenty of religions or cultures have their definitions for it as well — enlightenment, rebirth, awakening, etc., but in Buddhism, they have a term called “Satori”, which is a sudden enlightenment. It shifts the meaning from self-destruction to self-generation where they work towards being a better version of themself. James Cameron experienced it. He was living a life as a truck driver, smoking weed, and doing LSD, but realized he could transform his life by going to the library. He had a sudden enlightenment. He could become the filmmaker he wanted without a formal education.
If I am ever struggling, I ask myself, “If I had ten times the agency, what would I do?” or “What would a high agency person do?”
It isn’t a ground breaking theory, but it helped me when I felt I wasn’t doing everything I wanted to — travel, athletic pursuits, job hunt. I felt the world closing in on me and wanted to start doing more for myself. I had always traveled with family and friends but never did it alone. I thought I needed someone else until I realized I could just do things. I went to San Diego alone to learn to surf. I went to Vegas alone and completed a fitness competition I always wanted to do. I asked the people whose jobs I found interesting if they had time to get coffee. It is a work in progress, but choosing to blame a lack of agency or dissatisfaction with life on something beyond me doesn’t help. It only robs me.
The world is more abundant than ever. Automation dangers agency, but opportunities have never been greater. It is an amplifier. James Cameron didn’t have some elaborate twelve step plan, perfect timing, or automated system for when to start. He started doing things. Now, he is set to be the most successful film director of all-time.
-Scantron
Always appreciate you for reading. Let me hear any thoughts!
Such a great read. I’ve been in a slump between film projects so reading this definitely lit some kinda fire in me.
Great one!