George Mack Quotes

British marketer and high-agency essayist

George Mack is a British writer, advertising strategist, and entrepreneur renowned for viral essays and X threads on mental models, marketing psychology, and high agency—a proactive mindset of clear thinking, action bias, and shaping reality.

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Rule of thumb for spotting upcoming trends: If it’s a talking point on Reddit, you’re probably early. If it’s a talking point on LinkedIn, you’re definitely late.

The idiot razor: When stuck between two equal options, choose the one that feels like stupidity over the one that feels like cowardice. It’s better to be an idiot than a coward. At least you’ll be fun at dinner parties.

The easiest way I’ve found to increase my agency is to create two characters in my head:

Person A - Low agency self
Person B - High agency self

Ask: What would person A do? And what would person B do?

Ironically, Person A never asks this question. He acts on autopilot.

Golden rule: Never underestimate someone’s ability to get in their own way.

The adults don't exist. Normal doesn't exist. If you don't think someone is weird, you've simply not spent enough time with them.

Never argue with a professional cynic online. Instead, try and find their earliest ever work. Often when I go scroll back far enough, I'll discover an old version of them that had hope, that had optimism, that had agency. And then some rejection happened.

I've noticed a direct negative correlation between aliveness and envy. If someone works on things that make them feel alive behind their eyes, the envy towards other people melts and turns into joy.

Rule of thumb for spotting future trends: If you’re mocked for it, it doesn’t mean it’s the future. But if you’re not mocked for it, it’s almost certainly not the future.

Pick any problem in your life. Now imagine you have an evil twin with a moustache. This evil twin is making it their sole focus to solve this problem before you do. What are they doing differently to you? Write this down. And then try to beat them. Hurry. They've already started.

Useful rule of thumb: If you’re over the age of 25, assume your initial reactions about new trends are wrong. It’s ok to have no opinion until you’ve spent a few hours getting your hands dirty.

If you compliment someone behind their back, the listener respects your loyalty. If you gossip about someone behind their back, the listener starts wondering if you'll do the same once their back is turned.

Underappreciated advice: Get friends who are significantly older than you. There's no mimetic competition. Just decades of wisdom they love to share. This was normal for most of your ancestors.

The best writing advice I’ve found is to read your writing on Kindle. When I read my work in Google docs, I think I’m a genius and I need to say more. When I read my work on Kindle, I think I’m an idiot and need to say less.

A skeptic wants to see the truth. A cynic wants to see you depressed.

If you put the 110 billion humans ever to live in one giant room -- alive or age at death -- 40% would be under the age of 5. And 50% would be under the age of 15. Forget waiting for an age like 30 or 40 to do things. You're already elderly.