Troy Terwilliger’s Reviews > Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will > Status Update
Troy Terwilliger
is 5% done
In Sapolsky's framework, both trajectories are the result of an unfathomably complex biological and environmental lottery that began long before either person was born.
When you look at the Harvard graduate and the garbage man through a deterministic lens, you stop attributing their outcomes to mystical internal forces like "pure grit" or "poor choices."
— 10 hours, 26 min ago
When you look at the Harvard graduate and the garbage man through a deterministic lens, you stop attributing their outcomes to mystical internal forces like "pure grit" or "poor choices."
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Troy’s Previous Updates
Troy Terwilliger
is 4% done
When you strip away free will, traditional praise and blame take a massive hit because the idea of "moral desert"—the notion that someone deserves credit or punishment because they could have done otherwise—collapses.
— 10 hours, 38 min ago
Troy Terwilliger
is 3% done
If a person is brilliant, creative, or deeply kind, Sapolsky would argue they just won a massive lottery: a fortuitous mix of intrauterine environment, prefrontal cortex wiring, supportive upbringing, and stable neurochemistry. They didn't author their own machinery any more than the lilac authored its petals.
— 10 hours, 43 min ago
Troy Terwilliger
is 3% done
Sapolsky’s main thesis is that you cannot find a single moment where a "choice" happens independently of biology or history.
— May 14, 2026 03:46PM