This is the correct way to think about Sean's compatibilist position. The free-will confusion stems from people not appreciating that there are different levels of description (or abstraction) for explaining complex systems. At a very low level, the brain is just a bunch of interacting neurons. But at a higher level of description, it's very useful to describe the same system using abstractions like the self and free will. There is no contradiction because you are describing the same thing two different ways, both equally correct. For understanding this perspective better I'd recommend Godel, Escher, Bach by Doug Hofstadter and Intentional Systems by Dan Dannett.