Max Schoening. Practitioner and writer focused on what separates people who create value from those who consume it in a world where skills are increasingly AI-generatable. Published a widely-shared thesis in Lenny's Newsletter arguing that agency, defined as the capacity to self-direct and complete work without external scaffolding, is the scarce input of the AI era. His framing shifts hiring and career development conversations away from skill inventories and toward evidence of self-initiated completion.
Operating themes
- Agency as the scarce input Skills are learnable and AI-producible; the capacity to identify a problem and complete work without direction is the input that compounds.
- Portfolio over resume Self-initiated work samples are the observable proxy for agency; credentials and years of experience are not.