Preface #

When I first confronted the idea that free will does not exist, it shook me. The implications seemed to undermine so much of how I understood myself, my life, and my place in the world. If every thought, choice and action is simply the inevitable result of prior causes beyond my control, how could I make sense of success and failure, self-improvement, moral responsibility, or even the meaning and purpose of my own existence? I felt unmoored and directionless.

But as I sat with this reality and began working through its ramifications, I came to see it not as a negation of life’s possibilities, but as an invitation to radically rethink my approach to living. I realized that letting go of the illusion of free will didn’t mean relinquishing my agency or abandoning my aspirations. Instead, it opened the door to a more clear-eyed, pragmatic path forward.

In the pages ahead, I’ll share the insights and strategies that helped me navigate this initially disorienting terrain. Some of what you’ll find may seem counterintuitive at first. Abandoning deeply ingrained notions of desert-based praise and blame, righteous punishment, and ultimate credit and culpability for our choices and their outcomes is no small task. But as we’ll see, moving beyond these myths often aligns us with the most effective principles from psychology and the human potential movement.

When it comes to parenting, a free will skeptical approach encourages us to praise a child’s actions and efforts rather than inborn traits. In our own lives, it shifts the focus from agonizing over paths not taken to optimizing the processes underlying goal pursuit. And it locates the basis for meaning not in some illusory ability to have done otherwise, but in the recognition that we are part of an unfolding story bigger than any one of us.

Throughout this book, my aim is to help you grapple with these heady concepts not through abstract philosophizing, but by drilling down to their practical implications. Each chapter will address a specific domain of life and translate the implications of a determined cosmos into concrete tools you can implement immediately to improve your relationships, your habits, your emotional wellbeing, and more.

If you’re someone who’s struggled with the seeming bleakness and futility of a worldview without free will, I hope this book offers a liberating alternative perspective. And if you’ve been searching for an evidence-based, real-world guide to living your best life, unconstrained by the myth of contra-causal free will, you’ve come to the right place.

Let’s dive in.

Jason Brownlee
Melbourne, Australia
2024