One interesting thing about very young children is that they still don’t do anything on autopilot. Everything they do is deliberate. This has drawbacks, like getting easily distracted from something as basic as eating.

But it also has some advantages. The childlike wonder that we all secretly long for comes directly out of this intense focus on the world in front of them.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.Marcel Proust

It would do all of us some good to get off auto-pilot every now and then and focus on the details of how we navigate the world all day long.

Thought Partner: Dexter Koffel