Tradition and the Cost of Outsourced Thinking
Why financial independence often begins by questioning inherited defaults
Tradition is unavoidable.
Most of our lives run on inherited patterns: morning coffee, work routines, financial norms, career timelines, even ideas of what a “successful life” should look like. We cannot rethink every decision from first principles every day. Thinking is expensive. Tradition helps us conserve energy.
And yet, when I look back at many of the decisions that made me happiest — moving countries, investing early, applying for an MBA abroad, writing a book — they all involved breaking from tradition in some way.
That tension has made me think a lot about three questions:
Why do we need tradition?
When does tradition help us?
And when does it quietly replace independent thinking?
Why We Need Tradition
Tradition exists because it is efficient.
When we recorded the audiobook version of our book, we used detailed checklists for everything: microphone setup, sound checks, backups. The checklist reduced unnecessary thinking so we could focus on the work that mattered.
Much of life works this way. Habits and routines reduce friction. Shared norms make coordination easier. Stability creates comfort.
At its best, tradition frees mental bandwidth for higher-quality thinking.
When Tradition Becomes Dangerous
The problem is not tradition itself.
The problem is unconscious participation in it.
Once something becomes socially normalized, it stops feeling like a decision. It simply becomes “how life works.”
This is especially true financially:
work until retirement,
increase spending as income rises,
optimize for stability,
postpone freedom until later.
Many people do not consciously choose these paths. They inherit them.
But financial independence often begins by questioning inherited assumptions:
Why should freedom only exist after retirement?
Why is higher income automatically paired with higher consumption?
Why are conventional paths assumed to be safer?
The moment you begin asking those questions, you are already stepping outside tradition.
My Personal Heuristic
I am not anti-tradition. I use it constantly.
But I have developed a simple rule for myself:
Tradition is never automatic.
Whenever possible, I try to spend at least a small amount of mental compute evaluating whether a pattern still makes sense for me personally.
Sometimes the answer is yes.
But I want it to remain a conscious yes.
I also have a strong bias toward experimentation. If everyone travels during peak season, I instinctively look at off-peak options. If everyone structures life in one accepted way, I become curious about alternatives.
Part of this is personality. I get bored by excessive stability.
But I also think experimentation compounds. Many of the opportunities and freedoms that shaped my life only existed because I deviated slightly from default paths.
