Private Power, Public Impact: The Rise of Everyday Agency

In this issue of Madam I’m Adam, I explore the hidden connections between technological evolution, communication shifts, and changing business norms that are collectively reshaping our world—and restoring agency to individuals and small groups.

We’re living in a strange new normal. Autonomous AI engineers now write code. Private Signal chats shape public protest. The biggest question in business is whether growth is even the right goal anymore.

These seemingly disparate trends all point to the same fundamental shift. There is a profound realignment of how power, influence, and innovation mix in our digital age. Let’s connect the dots.

🧠 AI Doesn’t Kill Jobs—It Redefines Them

The rise of AI systems like Devin, the autonomous AI engineer, signifies more than just another automation story. In Lenny Rachitsky’s detailed breakdown, we see a system that is already contributing 25% of a company’s pull requests. Projections suggest it will soon reach 50%.

But, Melissa Perri, an expert in product leadership, astutely points out an essential insight. Simply “adding AI” to existing workflows and legacy products isn’t a strategy. It’s merely a tagline. The real opportunity isn’t about automation for automation’s sake. It’s about liberating human talent to tackle more complex, creative challenges that machines can’t solve. This echoes thoughts I shared in my piece on Machine Unlearning and its implications for data privacy.

Greg James articulates this perfectly: “Focus on human, not just machine.” He reminds us that “These tools offer insights and efficiency.” But, they don’t bring the creativity, intuition, and strategic thinking that only human connection and emotional intelligence can provide.”

Similarly, John Maeda observes, “I don’t believe AI is replacing designers. If anything, it’s forcing us to focus on what only humans can provide: judgment, empathy, ethics, and the ability to ask the right questions.” He sees AI as a tool to allow us to scale. It allows us to experiment in ways that weren’t possible before. Yet, he emphasizes that meaning still comes from human insight and intent.

I don’t believe AI is replacing designers. If anything, it’s forcing us to focus on what only humans can provide: judgment, empathy, ethics, and the ability to ask the right questions.

John Maeda, “From Reactive Graphics to the Agent Era: Reflections on the Evolution of Design and Code”

Leadership imperative: Tomorrow’s developer isn’t primarily a builder—they’re an architect and visionary. AI’s ascendance demands we cultivate judgment, creativity, and strategic thinking, not just technical velocity.

🔐 From Broadcast to Backchannel

Public social platforms once dominated our discourse. Now, the center of gravity has shifted dramatically. Semafor’s recent analysis explores how encrypted group chats have evolved. These chats have transformed from side conversations into primary channels. People now use them to organize everything from labor strikes to political movements.

The recent reporting on Signal-style app breaches used by government officials only underscores this reality. The most consequential conversations and coordination are happening in closed networks. Not because secrecy is the goal, but because trust has become our scarcest resource.

This shift from public discourse to private networks reminds me of ideas I explored in Revisiting Brave New World: The Future of Search, where I examined how our relationship with information discovery continues to evolve in unexpected ways.

The power shift: Today’s influence does not come from follower counts. It does not come from public visibility either. Instead, it derives from who’s in your trusted private circle. It also depends on how effectively you can mobilize that network when it matters.

📉 Rethinking Growth as the Default Setting

MIT Sloan’s penetrating critique of the growth imperative offers a prompt reminder: unbridled scale isn’t always synonymous with success. In fact, hyper-growth often introduces systemic vulnerabilities rather than resilience.

Peter Thiel and Blake Masters make this point forcefully in “Zero to One”: “If you focus on near-term growth above all else, you miss the most important question. You should be asking: will this business still be around a decade from now? Numbers alone won’t tell you the answer; instead you must think critically about the qualitative characteristics of your business.”

This perspective hits the technology sector with particular force. In this field, “grow fast or die slow” has been gospel for decades. But what if the next chapter of business evolution isn’t about scaling at all costs, but about creating sustainable value?

The late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen offers a profound personal corollary to this business insight in “How Will You Measure Your Life?”: “I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched.” What applies at the individual level also resonates at the organizational one.

I’ve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn’t dollars but the individual people whose lives I’ve touched.

Clayton Christensen “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

Strategic reset: The companies poised to thrive in this new environment will optimize for longevity, adaptability, and genuine value creation. They will not focus on vanity metrics like headcount or valuation. Instead, they will aim to impact real people in meaningful ways.

🧭 Agency: Our Most Profound Power

The word “agency” traces its origins to the Latin agere, meaning “to do, perform, drive forward, or set in motion.” From this root emerged the Medieval Latin agentia, representing “active operation” or “a mode of exerting power.” This etymology perfectly captures what’s happening across our technological and social landscape.

From Kyle Lacy’s reflections on how critical feedback transformed his leadership approach to the proliferation of workshops helping job-seekers navigate AI-driven transitions, one theme emerges consistently: amid systemic uncertainty, personal agency—our capacity to act independently and make free choices—remains our most powerful tool.

People aren’t just passively experiencing disruption—they’re actively reconfiguring careers, building communities, and choosing intentional paths. What philosophers call “human agency” is precisely this ability to sense our environment. It allows us to make meaningful alterations to our state. We can exercise power and influence despite constraints.

Bottom line: Systems and institutions evolve in unpredictable ways. Yet, individual choices shape outcomes in profound ways. Small-group actions also play a significant role. The philosopher Bandura described this as “emergent interactive agency.” In this concept, humans are “self-organizing, proactive, and self-regulating,” and not just reactive organisms shaped by external events.

🧩 The Agency Revolution

The thread connecting these seemingly separate phenomena is clear. The age of centralized control and top-down influence is giving way to something more distributed. It’s more nuanced and more powerful. This shows a resurgence of true agency in both personal and organizational contexts.

This isn’t simply about autonomy or independence. As philosophers have noted, agency encompasses “the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment.” It also includes “the ability to make decisions and enact them on the world.” It signifies our ability to sense our surroundings, process information, and take meaningful action that shapes outcomes.

For those interested in exploring these themes further, I’ve written about related concepts in Alternate Worlds of Innovation, where I discuss how technology enables new forms of creative expression and problem-solving.

Whether it’s an AI writing your next line of code, a private chat thread launching a social movement, or a founder choosing purpose over endless scale—the signal is unmistakable:

The future belongs to those who cultivate true agency. They lead with clarity. They build with trust. They grow on their own terms.

What’s your take? Where are you seeing private agency reshape public outcomes? Are you rethinking your relationship with growth, leadership, or technology?

Let me know in the comments—or drop a reply in the group chat. You know the one.

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Madam I’m Adam is a weekly exploration of technology, business, and culture. It examines the intersection of human potential and systemic change. If you found this valuable, consider sharing it with a colleague or friend.