Free Will -- the "materialist string" pulls both ways.

[Jehanne]

Thanks for not being pessimistic about it.

I dislike when people turn towards a negative side instantly "Well then I might aswell do nothing because I'll have no choice".
Makes no sense imo. They're just using it as an excuse to be lazy etc.

Good parenting responds to this -- setting expectations for the kiddo, encouragement, showing by good example, rewards (personal and financial), etc.

Do deadbeats have "free will"?  No, of course not, but neither do industrious persons, either.  Does anyone here in the workforce think that you have a choice as to whether you want to get out of bed and go to work, or just stay home and watch TV?  No, absolutely not; going to work is not a choice.  You have to go, and there is no alternative but to go and to do the very best job that you can.  I could not "choose" go to work any more than I could "choose" to stick my hand in a garbage disposal, turning it on.  Just as my neural circuits prevent the latter, so, too, they compel the former.  It just not matter at all whether I "feel" like going to work; I must go to work.  My entire life depends on going to work, and so, I go, and I have no choice in the matter.  My brain compels me to go, whether I "want" to or not.