You Can Just Do Things: How High-Agency People Get What They Want Out of Life

You’ve been taught success comes from careful planning, learning the ropes, and earning one promotion at a time. But what about the people who seem to skip all that?

We all know a few rare individuals who never stop moving, taking wild risks, and collecting public failures, yet somehow always seem to land on top. Cate Hall is one of those maddening, inspiring people. She left an elite legal career just before making partner to gamble for a living — and became the world’s top-ranked female poker player. A drug addiction left her broke and brain-damaged, but a year after emerging from it, she co-founded a biotech startup that set a clinical trial speed record. Not long after, she took the helm of one of the world’s largest philanthropic foundations.

Why don’t the rules apply to her? What if they don’t apply to you either?

In You Can Just Do Things, Cate Hall argues that the so-called “rules” of success aren’t rules at all — they’re productivity guidelines for low-agency people. Hall shows readers how to live with agency and take control of your future:

• Increase your surface area for luck
• Take every shortcut available
• Build “forcing functions” that ensure commitment
• Use your deepest insecurities as fuel for growth

Are you ready to cross the cringe minefield? To show up where you don’t belong, apply for jobs you’re not qualified for, call people who aren’t expecting it, and risk looking foolish in front of others? Every time you think, “Somebody should do this,” that somebody can be you.

An uncomfortable psychological journey and a toolkit for bold living, You Can Just Do Things reveals how to stop waiting and start building the life you want.

Cate Hall’s journey is a vivid reminder that a meaningful life isn’t something that happens to you—it’s something you author. You Can Just Do Things is more than just a title; it’s a radical shift in perspective that challenges us to take full responsibility for our own potential. A must-read for anyone tired of their own "stuckness." — Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Millions feel stuck in a rut in their lives—preprogrammed and unable to change. In You Can Just Do Things, Cate Hall has the answer. Through small, decisive actions, you can take control of your life and live the way you want. — Arthur C. Brooks, Harvard professor and #1 New York Times bestselling author

Building something new is hard. But it doesn’t have to be miserable. In You Can Just Do Things, Cate Hall lays out principles for navigating uncertainty, learning from failure, and staying resilient without burning out. It’s refreshing to read a book so ambitious and humane at the same time. — Ali Abdaal, New York Times bestselling author of Feel-Good Productivity

Cate Hall reminds us that momentum beats mastery, and courage is built by doing, not waiting to feel ready. You Can Just Do Things challenges the polite lies we tell ourselves about readiness and risk and replaces them with movement. — Jenny Wood, New York Times bestselling author of Wild Courage

Without realizing it, many of us are living within a prison of our own making—one whose bars are made of delusional assumptions about what is and isn’t possible. You Can Just Do Things is a prison break instruction manual—a wildly empowering how-to guide for getting out of your own way so you can realize your true potential. — Tim Urban, cofounder of Wait But Why, bestselling author of What’s Our Problem?