The idea of freedom or choice is often mistaken for lack of structure or constraint.
Structure and constraint are necessary to function. They are the foundation from which deviation and surprise are possible, like jazz musicians improvising on the simple structure of a known theme.
Good structures and constraints tend to be simple and live at the bottom of the stack, so to speak. They provide a foundation and lots of experimentation is possible on top of them.
So what does it mean when I advocate for freedom and choice, if I’m acknowledging the need for structure and constraint?
The freedom to choose your structure. The ability to opt-in to existing constraints or create your own that you and others can opt-in to.
The deadly form of constraint or structure is one imposed from on high by a single source of power. They will become corrupt and draw corruption around them. They will kill vital feedback loops, innovation, experimentation, discovery, and knowledge. They will get more and more detailed and far reaching in the structure they impose, turning it from a stable base to a chaotic bureaucracy.
This is always and everywhere inevitable when people have the power to impose constraints on others against their will (with the partial exception of parenthood, which ought to be a process of slowly transferring the imposition of constraints from the parent to the child until the child is able to assume it fully). See Public Choice Theory and all of history for proof.
So in rejecting the imposition of constraint and structure from the outside, do not forget to establish it from the inside. Any area in which you are free from external constraint, you should be choosing and crafting and doing your best to stick to your own constraints, or opting in to those created by others.
If you attempt to operate without constraints, you do not end up unconstrained. You end up in bondage to unspoken, dark, shadowy constraints like depression, lack of ambition, lack of confidence, sloth, gluttony, lust, and all the other chains of hell.
Constraints are your weapons and armor against these forces. Pick up the well-established ones that fit you, and craft new ones as needed.
The power of choice is to choose your own constraints and create your own structure.