We’ve Hit Personal Agency Hyperfinflation

The Empire of Convenience

Photo by Faraaz Zuberi on Unsplash

They printed so many German marks in the 1920s, eventually you needed a wheelbarrow of them to buy a loaf of bread.

You could literally swim in a Scrooge McDuck style pool of money and still be living in poverty.

That’s what inflation looks like when applied to currencies.

I think something similar is happening with our personal agency.

The more tools we accumulate — apps, gadgets, platforms, AI copilots — the richer we feel in capability. But paradoxically, each new layer seems to make us weaker. Like the Weimar baker who preferred being paid in bread rather than paper, I sometimes wonder if I’d rather trade away most of my tools and have the raw skill set back.

This sounds dramatic. Is it really possible that adding conveniences makes us less powerful? But watch how we panic when our phones die, how helpless we feel without Wi-Fi.

Something’s going on here.

Tools as Leverage, Tools as Crutches

The first time you use a new tool, it’s not unlike picking up a magic wand. GPS, for example. Suddenly the entire map of the world collapses into a blue dot and an arrow, and you’re never lost again. A miracle…