Cate Hall
Writes Useful Fictions on agency and how to get better at things; a former appellate lawyer and the top-ranked woman in professional poker in 2017.
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What they believe
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Radical agency is finding real edges: the things other people are unwilling to do because they are annoying or unpleasant.
In my way of thinking, radical agency is about finding real edges: things you are willing to do that others aren’t, often because they’re annoying or unpleasant.
usefulfictions.substack.comSaid 10 Jan 2024This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
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Lovedrcmnd.app
Cat's CradleTheir words
I think I’ve read this book five times, which is 2.5 times more than my next-most-read book. It is both a totally straightforward, easy to read short novel and a work of incredible inventiveness and wisdom.
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Lovedrcmnd.app
The Goddess of Everything ElseTheir words
A gorgeous allegory of the forces of cooperation and competition, as personified by the title character and the Goddess of Cancer. I love this piece because it reminds me that everything good in the world doesn’t just arise in spite of the bad, but in a perverse way because of it.
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Lovedrcmnd.app
The EggTheir words
A work of great beauty that has exerted a buffering effect on my sanity throughout different eras of my life, acting like a psychedelic during my most grounded times and a grounding influence during my most psychedelic (psychotic) times.
+ 2 more
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Lovedrcmnd.app
The Book of Hours: Love Poems to GodTheir words
The only good poetry about God I’ve ever found. (You are welcome to point me to better.)
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Lovedrcmnd.app
For Jane: With All the Love I Had, Which Was Not EnoughTheir words
This poem, written six months after the horrifying, alcoholism-related death of the great love of his life, is the best poem about love or grief I’ve ever read.
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Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 9 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Radical agency is finding real edges: the things other people are unwilling to do because they are annoying or unpleasant.
In my way of thinking, radical agency is about finding real edges: things you are willing to do that others aren’t, often because they’re annoying or unpleasant.
How to be more agentic Said 10 Jan 2024
Most traits people treat as fixed — agency, confidence, charisma, warmth — are learnable if you believe they are and work at them.
Most subject matter is learnable, even stuff that seems really hard. But beyond that, many (most?) traits that people treat as fixed are actually quite malleable if you (1) believe they are and (2) put the same kind of work into learning them as you would anything else.
How to be more agentic Said 10 Jan 2024
If you are only asking for things you get, you are not asking for enough, and rejection should be courted deliberately.
Ask for things that feel unreasonable, to make sure your intuitions about what’s reasonable are accurate (of course, try not to be a jerk in the process). If you’re only asking for things you get, you’re not aiming high enough.
How to be more agentic Said 10 Jan 2024
Show 6 more
Not seeking honest feedback from the people who know you is the largest and least-taken opportunity for self-improvement, and it usually has to be anonymous to be honest.
If you aren’t trying to get real feedback from people who know you, you’re cooking without tasting.
How to be more agentic Said 10 Jan 2024
You cannot predict which conversations will be useful, so the way to find opportunities is to take many meetings with no obvious benefit.
What I discovered by casting a wide net was that I have very little ability to predict how useful a call will be in advance.
How to be more agentic Said 10 Jan 2024
Grinding raises output briefly while destroying the creativity and big-picture thinking the work depends on.
The reality is that grinding, even if it temporarily increases output, kills creativity and big picture thinking.
How to be more agentic Said 10 Jan 2024
A drop in agency is the earliest sign of burnout, arriving before you consciously notice you are burning out.
Burnout is the ultimate agency-killer. This is so true that I’ve learned to identify a reduction in agency as one of the first signs of burnout, one that shows up even before I consciously realize what’s happening.
How to be more agentic Said 10 Jan 2024
Advice on how hard to work should only be taken from someone who has burned out before.
My rule is never to take instructions on how hard I should work from someone who hasn’t burned out before.
How to be more agentic Said 10 Jan 2024
Learning a new skill set requires crossing a moat of low status, and the willingness to be visibly bad in public is itself the advantage.
The idea is that making changes in your life, especially when learning new skill sets, requires you to cross a moat of low status, a period of time where you are actually bad at the thing or fail to know things that are obvious to other people.
How to be more agentic Said 10 Jan 2024
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 5 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Loved For Jane: With All the Love I Had, Which Was Not Enough
This poem, written six months after the horrifying, alcoholism-related death of the great love of his life, is the best poem about love or grief I’ve ever read.
words.getmatter.com 18 Apr 2026
What others say about For Jane: With All the Love I Had, Which Was Not Enough →
Loved The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
The only good poetry about God I’ve ever found. (You are welcome to point me to better.)
words.getmatter.com 18 Apr 2026
What others say about The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God →
Loved The Egg
A work of great beauty that has exerted a buffering effect on my sanity throughout different eras of my life, acting like a psychedelic during my most grounded times and a grounding influence during my most psychedelic (psychotic) times.
words.getmatter.com 18 Apr 2026
Show 2 more
Loved The Goddess of Everything Else
A gorgeous allegory of the forces of cooperation and competition, as personified by the title character and the Goddess of Cancer. I love this piece because it reminds me that everything good in the world doesn’t just arise in spite of the bad, but in a perverse way because of it.
words.getmatter.com 18 Apr 2026
Loved Cat's Cradle
I think I’ve read this book five times, which is 2.5 times more than my next-most-read book. It is both a totally straightforward, easy to read short novel and a work of incredible inventiveness and wisdom.
words.getmatter.com 18 Apr 2026
Where they publish
Newsletter Useful Fictions Her newsletter on agency, ambition and self-honesty. Has a feed.
Open usefulfictions.substack.com
Recent
- Nate w/Cate Hall on her new book, "You Can Just Do Things" 23 Jul 2026 A recording from Cate Hall and Nate Silver's live video
- You Can Just Do Things is out TODAY! 21 Jul 2026
- Find a way 3 Jun 2026 Don't let reality reject you
Show 17 more
- Do you know your default shape? 27 May 2026 Notes on a concept we've been exploring together
- Agency is for sociopaths 20 May 2026 But it doesn't have to be
- Until you get punched in the face 13 May 2026 On the dangers of being self-enamored
- Writing a book is a labor of love 1 Apr 2026 You can preorder ours today
- Do Less. 11 Feb 2026 My year of magical not-thinking
- The lies I used to tell myself 23 Jan 2026 I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger
- The seam through the center of things 14 Jan 2026 On addiction, God, and grace
- Burnout is breaking a sacred pact 7 Jan 2026 Here’s how to fix it
- Rightness is a prison 20 Aug 2025 And the judo of agreeing
- Behold, my TED talk 14 Aug 2025 How it came together in 3 weeks
- In praise of quitting 6 Aug 2025 You’ve got to know when to fold ’em
- 50 things I know 30 Jul 2025 And wish I'd known sooner
- How to increase your surface area for luck 23 Jul 2025 You should just do things
- How to instantly be better at things 16 Jul 2025 Just pretend you're someone else
- Fuck willpower 9 Jul 2025 Winners take shortcuts
- Learn to love the Moat of Low Status 2 Jul 2025 It hurts, but less than you think
- 37 things people love about Sasha Chapin 25 Jun 2025 A communal love letter to my husband
Link verified 20 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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