How do I practice epistemic authority audit?

The most direct way to practice epistemic authority audit is through a focused exercise: Take 30 minutes and write down every person, institution, publication, and platform whose judgment you routinely accept without independent verification. Organize them into domains: career, health, finances, relationships, politics, technology, identity. For each entry, answer two questions: (1) When did I start deferring to this source? (2) Did I consciously choose to, or did it happen through repetition, social proof, or emotional resonance? Mark any entry where the honest answer to question two is 'it just happened.'

Common pitfall: Performing the audit as a performance of independence — listing authorities only to reject them all in a show of intellectual toughness. The point is not to purge every external authority. It is to make each delegation conscious and earned. Reflexive rejection is as intellectually lazy as reflexive deference.

This practice connects to Phase 31 (Self-Authority) — building it as a repeatable habit compounds over time.