Through the work that I'm doing, I'm realizing that there are two kinds of people; (a) people that tend to find themselves on stage, and (b) people that tend to find themselves in the audience.

This is from Tim Ingold's "The Perception of the Environment" in which he distinguishes different positions and views of the natural environment around us.

I think about this diagram a lot.

Environment as a lifeworld implies that we experience the world with ourselves in it, understanding the world through our direct engagement and lived experience. Agency emerges from relationships and interactions with the environment.

Environment as a globe implies that the environment is seen from the outside, as if we are in space. Agency is simply a human property, or a resource that can be managed.