Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot. — Charles Bukowski

Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.

Author: Charles Bukowski

Insight: We're probably all born with some spark of curiosity and creativity—that toddler wonder at how things work, the willingness to try stuff without worrying about looking stupid. Then life happens. School teaches us there's one right answer. Work teaches us to fit in. Social media teaches us to curate instead of create. Slowly, almost without noticing, we stop asking questions and start asking permission. The brutal part of Bukowski's observation isn't that we lose genius—it's that we often do it to ourselves. We don't get stupider so much as more cautious, more concerned with what others think, more convinced that our ideas aren't worth pursuing. We start filtering ourselves before anyone else gets the chance to. The person you were at seven probably had wilder instincts, stranger connections, less fear of failure. The person you are now has probably learned to be careful in all the ways that feel responsible and safe. What makes this quote sting is the implication that this decline isn't inevitable—it's a choice, made a thousand small times. Not always a conscious one, but still a choice. The inverse is less catchy but maybe more useful: you don't have to bury yourself. You can stay curious. You can defend that spark instead of letting it get filed away.

Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems, p. 286, 1992