Agency is Magic
This seems odd. Why would you change philosophies? But power and magic can also be called agency. Identifying as a Saruman is the fastest way to becoming agentic. You try to do something no one else thinks you can do, it works, you think you can do more things. But at some point you realize that this works because you were pushing mental boundaries, not reality boundaries. The limits that you were overcoming by bullshitting were self-imposed limits. When you hit reality your realize you can’t accomplish something by yourself. You can push in another direction, you can keep hammering away, you can see yourself as a failure, or you can give up ownership and help other people reach the goal. The last is becoming a Radagast.
Let’s shift from a fantasy metaphor to a science-fiction metaphor. Saruman is the Dark Side of The Force and Radagast is the Light Side. The Dark Side is “quicker, easier, more seductive.” But it’s not more powerful. It’s just faster to get results. The Light Side, you need to be “calm, at peace. Passive.” Not a great metaphor because the Dark Side is not a great starter set for learning the Force. In Star Wars, Jedis fall from the Light Side because they get impatient and want results. Redemption is rare.
The Saruman/Radagast metaphor is to become agentic and then realize that more can be accomplished through the efforts of other people. But you can’t support other people without being agentic yourself. Saruman personifies gaining agency, Radagast personifies the limits of ego.
In real life, the maligned Landmark program is a way through this progression. You first learn to be agentic by realizing all the limitations that are self-imposed. Eventually, you start a project, only to be told to hand off that project to someone else. That handoff teaches you to prioritize the project, not your ego. And if you want that project to succeed, you need to support the new leader.