Decision-Making

The Illusion of Conscious Will: Who Is Really Choosing?

Neuroscience's most uncomfortable experiment: your brain starts an action before you feel yourself deciding to. Libet's readiness potential, split-brain confabulation, choice blindness, and what Daniel Wegner got right — and what he didn't. With a 7-day protocol for auditing the feeling of choosing.

10 min read 2026-08-27

Conscious WillFree WillLibet

No Favorable Wind: Seneca on Why Direction Beats Speed

"If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable." Seneca's one-liner from a letter to a friend who kept delaying his life explains the modern epidemic of busy, optimised, directionless effort. Here is what the Stoics actually meant by purpose, why more productivity without a port makes you worse off, and a practical way to choose your harbour before you trim your sails.

10 min read 2026-08-29

StoicismSenecaPurpose