The 2% Decision: Why the Stairs Are Never Really About the Stairs

Read this on victoriaprew.com​

Read time: 2.5 minutes

Hey! Happy Monday.

I recently witnessed something at an airport that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. Not a single person took the stairs. Every person in front of me stepped onto the escalator without a second thought... the stairs were right there, and nobody moved toward them.

I took the stairs. I always take the stairs (my mum always made me, the habit stuck). Not because I am trying to squeeze in cardio before a flight. Because I stopped making exceptions years ago, and now I don't have to make decisions. The default is the harder thing.

[the concept]

Why Nobody Takes the Stairs

The research is not complicated. Humans are wired for efficiency. Up until roughly seventy years ago, conserving energy was survival logic. You did not walk when you could ride. You did not carry when you could put down. Physical exertion was an output of necessity, not a choice.

Then the environment changed faster than the wiring did. We engineered effort out of daily life at scale: escalators, lifts, drive-throughs, desk jobs, delivery apps. The result is an environment that defaults almost entirely to the path of least resistance.

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​The 2% Rule Is a Decision Architecture Problem

​Michael Easter's 2% rule is often framed as a fitness principle. I want to reframe it entirely. It is not about the calories burned on the stairs. It is about what the choice signals to you about yourself.

Founders understand compounding intellectually. We build financial models on it. We talk about it in investment memos. But most founders have never modelled the compounding cost of comfort defaults... the gradual accumulation of small surrenders that collectively produce a life operating below its actual ceiling.

[the framework]

Building a 2% Default System

Here is what I did and what I recommend to every founder I work with: stop making it a decision. Engineer the environment so the harder default requires no willpower.

• Physical defaults: identify every moment in your daily environment where a harder option exists and costs you nothing except the small discomfort of choosing it. Stairs, not lifts. Walk to the meeting, not an Uber for twelve minutes. Stand for the call you would have taken seated.
• Financial defaults: automate every investment, pension contribution, and allocation before you see the money. Set the standing order before you spend what's left. Read the terms before you sign. The 98% defer these decisions until they feel urgent. By then, they're expensive.
• Cognitive and operating defaults: choose the harder conversation now rather than the easier deferral. Write the honest post-mortem. Do the annual review you have been meaning to do. Give the direct feedback instead of the diplomatic version that changes nothing. The stairs are the decisions you already know you need to make.

[the lesson]

What are your escalators?

Identify three escalators in your life right now. One physical, one financial, one operational. Write them down.

Then change the default for each one before this week ends. Not a plan to change it. The actual change.

• Book the session.
• Set the standing order.
• Have the conversation.

The 2% is available to everyone. Most people just never decide to be in it.

Until next week,

Victoria