Reality is the Composite of Values and Physics

Each of us has many, many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps of the way things are, or realities, and maps of the way things should be, or values. (Location 808)

The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps, or assumptions, and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experience, the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, test them against reality, listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view. (Location 868)

Our character, basically, is a composite of our habits. “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny,” the maxim goes. (Location 1163)

The world we live in is an amalgamation of physics, biology, and chemistry. These are invariants, facts about the universe that build the blank canvas that we live on.

On top of this, people have individual preferences (Joe decides to open a pizza shop because he thinks he's good at making pizza and he likes money), and societal preferences (Joe's pizza shop becomes a societal phenomenon, and people demand that it stays open, and serve them the hours that they want pizza).

There is a interesting emergent property where (human) reality is the agreed (or imposed) shared values of a society. The location and rent of buildings in Manhattan, to the acreage of a farm come down to shared values about property ownership, on the backdrop of physical reality (you can't have a 200 acre farm in the middle of Times Square, so the solution is to build vertically -- but you also can't herd cows on the 30th floor of the Grace Building, so the solution is to go wide).

Genetic determinism basically says your grandparents did it to you. (Location 1465)

Psychic determinism basically says your parents did it to you. (Location 1467)

Environmental determinism basically says your boss is doing it to you—or your spouse, or that bratty teenager, or your economic situation, or national policies. (Location 1471)

I'm of the belief that personal values are the final "sieve". In every individual, environmental, genetic and social dramas play out, and the individual forms their own mental framework to deal with these stressors. The result is preferences, and preferences whittled down become values over the long term.

Indeed, I have my own values and as far as I can tell, they emerged from what I consistently rank as personally important. Values Document

It’s also worthy of mention that every pattern has at least one small bias, and one day it will tip itself over, or fall from one page to another. (Location 3278)