Trace each value to its origin — if you acquired it before you could choose deliberately, it's inherited, not chosen

Why This Is a Rule

Many values feel like personal choices but were actually inherited — absorbed from family, culture, religion, or peer groups during developmental periods when you lacked the cognitive capacity to choose deliberately. A value acquired at age 6 ("hard work is the most important thing") was installed by your environment before you could evaluate whether hard work, smart work, or balanced work best serves your actual goals. It feels like your value because you've held it your entire conscious life — but you never chose it.

The developmental capacity test asks: "When I first held this value, was I cognitively mature enough to evaluate alternatives and choose deliberately?" If the value was present before adolescence — before abstract reasoning, identity formation, and values comparison were developmentally available — it was inherited, not chosen. This doesn't make it wrong — inherited values can be excellent. But it makes it unexamined, which means you're operating under assumptions you've never verified.

The purpose isn't to reject inherited values but to convert them from unconscious defaults to conscious endorsements. After examination, you might endorse the value ("hard work genuinely serves my goals"), modify it ("focused effort matters more than volume"), or reject it ("this was my father's value, not mine"). All three outcomes are improvements over the unexamined state.

When This Fires

• During any deliberate values examination or life-direction planning
• When you notice yourself holding a strong value and can't articulate when you chose it
• When a value feels non-negotiable but you can't explain why — it may be pre-rational
• Complements Audit beliefs for algorithmic origins — positions acquired through engineered exposure haven't passed your epistemic standards (audit beliefs for algorithmic origins) with the deeper developmental origin check

Common Failure Mode

Assuming longevity equals validity: "I've believed this my whole life — it must be right for me." Duration of belief correlates with early acquisition, not with correctness. The values you've held longest are the ones most likely to be inherited and least likely to be examined, because they feel like "just who I am" rather than "something I could question."

The Protocol

(1) For each value you consider important, trace its origin: "When did I first hold this value? What was my age? What was the context?" (2) Apply the developmental capacity test: "At that age, could I have evaluated alternatives and chosen deliberately?" Before ~12-14 years old, abstract values comparison isn't developmentally available. (3) If the value predates deliberate choice → classify as inherited. This is information, not judgment — inherited values can be excellent or terrible. (4) For inherited values: deliberately examine the value as an adult. "If I encountered this value for the first time today, with my current experience and reasoning capacity, would I adopt it?" (5) After examination: explicitly endorse, modify, or release. The value is now chosen rather than inherited, regardless of whether its content changed.