Eh, in one sense you don't choose who you are or what you really value deep down, but it is fully up you how you end up expressing that identity in terms of the

Eh, in one sense you don't choose who you are or what you really value deep down, but it is fully up you how you end up expressing that identity in terms of the things you do during your lifetime. Sure, you can then say that if all your thought processes are deterministic (modulo some inherent randomness), then even the outer stuff isn't really choice, is it? But the fact is, from your perspective the way your life will unfold is completely unknowable to you. And so, you get to experience the unfolding of your life and the "choices" inherent in that. Freedom means the freedom to express who you are[1], right? Whether they are philosophically "real" choices or not is irrelevant. Have you ever felt the satisfaction of building something? [1] Some people might call it the freedom to ~decide~ who you are, but one could say the difference is just a matter of perspective, depending on how much you see determinism playing into it.