A Fictional Character in a Serious Nonfiction Book

 When I began writing The Luck Illusion, I knew I did not want the book to become a series of abstract arguments about psychology, philosophy, causality, success and failure.

Those subjects matter, but they can easily become distant from ordinary life.

That was why I created Walsdos.

He is fictional, but the circumstances around him are not. Through his life, the reader can see how different causes gather over time and how one event can affect what happens next.

There was another reason for making him fictional. Walsdos could be almost anyone. He could be me, you, or somebody whose life has been judged too quickly from the outside.

People are often described in simple terms. Successful. Unsuccessful. Fortunate. Unfortunate. Lucky. Unlucky.

But a life is rarely that simple.

Because Walsdos does not belong to one real person, his story can carry parts of many lives. His purpose is not to provide a case history, but to give the argument somewhere human to exist.

That became an important part of the book. Instead of discussing hidden causes only in theory, I could show how they might build around one person and gradually alter the direction of a life.

Walsdos never existed.

The pressures, choices, limitations and circumstances that shape him certainly do.