Stephen Downes

This is an exploration of the concept of 'agency', a core concept in learning, development, and of society itself. "We talk about it like it's empowerment, like it's freedom, like it's the thing everyone should want. We frame it as liberation from constraint, as the ability to choose your path, to author your life, to be the protagonist of your own story." And all of that is true, but Carlo Iacono focuses here on the other side: how difficult and even frightening it is to step out of the passenger's chain and make your own way and chart your own direction in life. Agency "is not about making different choices. It's about developing the capacity to sit with the full weight of being the one who chooses. About learning to feel the difference between 'this is what I should do' and 'this is what I've decided to do.'"