Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of Self-Improvement · Sam Webster Harris | Growth Mindset Psychology

How To Build Free Will

January 20, 2026·54 min·3 clips

Viktor Frankl's definition places free will “between stimulus and response,” not in total control of life.

1. Growth Mindset Psychology: The Science of Self-Improvement uses the topic of free will to connect mindsets with personal growth. 2. Sam Webster-Harris is the host, and he frames the episode around consciousness, autonomy, and “freedom to choose.” 3. The core question is whether free will exists enough to build a growth mindset and more control over outcomes. 4. The episode opens with a contrast between fixed mindset as “the complete lack of choice” and growth mindset as autonomy. 5. Charles Duhigg’s In the Power of Habit provides the first case study through Brian Thomas, a registered sleepwalker. 6. Brian Thomas strangled his wife while asleep, and the host uses that case to show a period when consciousness was offline. 7. Angie Barkman provides the second case study, moving to a state where gambling was illegal after debt and loss. 8. Casinos later offered Angie free stays, free chips, and loaned money against her house and possessions. 9. The host uses her losses to question whether conscious choice is enough when addiction and reward systems are active. 10. Free will is then limited by physics, circumstances, social rules, and other people’s free will. 11. Elon Musk and a narrowly elected president are used as examples of how circumstance changes available options. 12. Sam Harris is cited to argue that people do not choose the inputs into their minds. 13. The host says thoughts, impulses, desires, and even preferences like chocolate or attraction “just appear” in consciousness. 14. Neural processes are treated as part of the self, not as something outside it. 15. Conscious and subconscious memories are separated with examples like learning to walk and early attachment training. 16. The episode also mentions that teachers, upbringing, and society can shape later preferences without much say from the person. 17. Viktor Frankl is presented as the clearest practical guide, with free will located between stimulus and response. 18. David Foster Wallace is quoted on learning how to think as learning control over what and how you think. 19. Listeners who want psychology, self-improvement, and decision-making under pressure will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners who want a short, light, or purely practical episode may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical case for agency that ties free will to growth mindset and everyday choices.

This episode frames free will as the main lens for growth mindset, arguing that real self-improvement begins with choice rather than with better outcomes alone.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a psychology argument for why choice and free will still matter.

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