Why cultivating agency matters more than cultivating skills in the AI era | Max Schoening (Notion)
TL;DR
Max Schoening argues that as AI democratizes technical skills, agency—the belief that you can change the world—has become more valuable than specific capabilities, while product roles are merging as designers and PMs increasingly prototype and build directly in code.
🎯 Agency as the Core Competency 3 insights
Drive it like it's stolen
Treat the company as if you own it by taking initiative on recruiting, strategy, and building without waiting for role-defined permission.
Agency beats skills
As AI democratizes technical capabilities, the unevenly distributed trait of agency—believing you can change the world—becomes the primary differentiator between those who thrive and those who stagnate.
Develop through making
Cultivate agency by physically tinkering and creating, which reinforces Steve Jobs' observation that the world is made by people no smarter than yourself.
🛠️ The Material of Product Development 3 insights
Code over static mockups
Designers at Notion moved from Figma to coding prototypes because AI interfaces require feeling the 'live' material, not 'dead fish' static images.
Understand agent loops
Deeply grasp how AI agents function by building with them in code, which matters more than simply tweaking UI elements via AI tools.
Role fluidity
The most effective product people blur traditional boundaries by contributing to production codebases as model capabilities improve.
⚖️ Quality in the AI Era 3 insights
The commoditized start
The first 10% of projects is now essentially free with AI, shifting the value to taste and direction-setting rather than initial execution.
Taste as prediction
Taste means running a mental simulation to predict what specific ingroups will like, a skill developed through deliberate practice and reps.
Preserve specialists
Avoid losing deep craft and engineering reliability expertise by resisting the 'vibe coding' trap of prioritizing shipping speed over scalable quality.
Bottom Line
Stop waiting for permission and 'drive your work like it's stolen' by cultivating agency through hands-on creation, while mastering your craft by building directly in the material rather than abstraction layers.
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