Introduction

We tend to explain our lives through choices. I chose my career. I chose where I live. I chose my beliefs. I chose my routines.

But look closely, and many of those "choices" turn out to be downstream of something quieter: paths that were already laid, options that were already selected, baselines that required no action to continue.

This book calls those structures defaults.

A default is what happens when no one decides. It is the outcome that occurs when attention runs out, when evaluation is costly, or when the environment selects on your behalf.

The pages that follow will define what defaults are, explain how they form and persist, and offer small scenes where they become briefly visible.

The goal is not to glorify choice or condemn defaults. The goal is to make them visible—so you can tell when you chose and when you simply continued.