Observability ≠ Agency

Try this: In the shower, brush your teeth with your dominant hand while washing your hair with the other. Fix your attention on the toothbrush. 

What you likely felt is your brain on autopilot. Most actions run as learned motor programs. When attention locks onto one stream, the unattended stream still executes - just without the narration that makes it feel “mine.” We mistake observation (I see the hand) and proximity (it’s attached to me) for agency (I’m causing every micro-motion). 

Neurons that fire together, wire together - your dominant hand has a lifetime of synchronized reps, so its predictions are crisp and feel authored. The other hand? Less rehearsal, fuzzier predictions, weaker sense of “I did that.”

Agency is a label your brain assigns when prediction and feedback line up under attention. Practice tightens that loop (why your dominant hand feels authored). Noise, delay, or divided focus loosen it (why the other hand feels alien).

Where else in life do we mistake observability and proximity for agency?