Curiosity Might Be the First Real Sign of High Agency

People love the saying, “Curiosity killed the cat,” but often forget the second half: “…but satisfaction brought it back.”

And honestly, that tracks. Scientists have gone so far as to describe cats as “evolutionarily perfect” — which sounds exactly like the sort of thing a cat would write.

But the point stands: curiosity doesn’t destroy agency — if anything, it sparks it. It transforms passive observation into active experimentation, the instinct that turns “I wonder why” into “Let me see for myself.”

We usually think of agency as something people suddenly develop in late teens or early twenties — a moment of “waking up” and taking control. In reality, it grows gradually through repeated patterns that often begin in childhood. And one of the earliest, most reliable indicators isn’t confidence, ambition, or intelligence:

It’s curiosity.

Not the social version of curiosity that pulls people into gossip cycles or trending headlines. That kind of curiosity is about belonging — staying connected to the group, keeping up with what everyone else is talking about. It serves a function, but it doesn’t reveal much about how a person thinks about the world.

I’m talking about the deeper version: the curiosity that makes you open something up to see how it works. The curiosity that makes you read about a field you know nothing about. The curiosity that makes you experiment — quietly, privately — without waiting for permission.

You can often tell a high-agency person long before you see any of their results. Long before they build anything, run anything, or create anything. They were the ones poking around the world, testing its edges, asking questions nobody told them to ask.

Curiosity sparks action, and consistent action builds skill.

Curiosity Vs Nosiness

Many confuse being “in the know” with being curious. They are not the same:

Nosiness: socially motivated, performative
Curiosity: internally motivated, generative

Nosiness rarely leads to meaningful action; curiosity almost always does. It compels movement. That movement, repeated over years, builds independence and problem-solving instinct.

Tinkering: The Early Training Ground

Many technical founders share similar childhood stories: dismantling electronics, modifying video games, building websites, breaking things to fix them. None of this was achievement-oriented — they were simply following questions that intrigued them.

Tinkering builds confidence through small feedback loops:

“What happens if I open this?”
“What happens if I change this line?”
“What if I combine these two things?”

Each loop strengthens the habit of independent problem-solving — the foundation of long-term capability. Not every tinkerer becomes a founder, but the underlying skill — the ability to figure things out — is a massive advantage.

Why Curiosity Comes Before Capability

Most people don’t notice how they learn. But learning isn’t actually about talent, or even about intelligence. It’s about behavioral reflexes.

A curious person reacts to the unknown in a specific way:

They notice something they don’t understand.
They feel a pull toward it.
They investigate on their own.
They gather information or experiment.
They try something — anything — to see what happens.
They adjust based on the result.

Observe → Explore → Attempt → Iterate

Most stop at “observe.” Curious people push all the way to “attempt,” generating momentum that turns repetition into skill, skill into competence, and competence into self-belief. By adulthood, this pattern looks like natural initiative. Those who never practice self-directed exploration often default to asking someone else first, never building that inner muscle.

Meanwhile, someone who never practiced self-directed exploration defaults to a different pattern:

See something confusing → look for someone to ask.

There’s nothing wrong with asking for help. But when it becomes the first instinct, it replaces the muscle of independent exploration before it ever has a chance to grow.

The curious child unknowingly trains that muscle while the uncurious one never realises the muscle even exists.

Curiosity Creates Cross-Domain Thinking

Most people learn in straight lines.

They’re taught to go from point A to point B in the shortest, cleanest path. They stay within the boundaries of their field. They follow established learning tracks.

Curious people rarely do this.

They jump between unrelated fields — psychology, physics, economics, design, history, algorithms, philosophy, business — connecting ideas others never see. This builds a flexible mental model, generating intuition and creativity that feels effortless to outsiders.

This is why curious people often seem ‘creative’ or ‘insightful,’ even when they don’t feel that way themselves. Every new insight highlights how much they still don’t know, fostering humility. At the same time, they’ve unintentionally built a network of mental shortcuts — cross-domain bridges — that give them access to ideas most people never encounter.

Over time, that constant exposure turns into an intuition so far outside the norm that it unsettles some people and inspires others.

The Paradox of Competence

People who grow through curiosity rarely feel “capable.” Every new insight highlights how much they still don’t know, creating humility. Meanwhile, passive individuals may feel confident with limited knowledge. Growth built through curiosity is invisible from the inside but apparent to the outside.

The Foundation of Initiative

True initiative comes from repeated cycles of exploration: try, fail or succeed, learn, try again. This trains fluency with uncertainty, removes fear of mistakes, and creates self-reliance. Over time, curiosity fuels a self-reinforcing loop:

exploration → competence → confidence → more exploration.

How Low Agency Develops (and Why It’s Often Misunderstood)

Low agency isn’t laziness. It often stems from the environment. Children raised with strict rules, constant correction or fear of making mistakes learn that exploration is dangerous. They develop:

fear of being wrong
fear of looking stupid
fear of taking initiative
fear of experimenting
dependence on authority

By contrast, children encouraged to explore — allowed to break things, question rules, test ideas — develop an internal script: “I can try things, and nothing terrible will happen.” That script forms the foundation of initiative. Agency isn’t purely internal; it emerges from early feedback loops, with curiosity usually triggering the first spark.

Why Curiosity Compounds Faster Than Talent

Talent is static; curiosity is dynamic. A talented but uncurious person plateaus early. A curious but less talented person surpasses them over time because curiosity produces more attempts → more learning → more competence → more confidence → more attempts. It’s self-reinforcing and compounding.

Curiosity sparks exploration: You poke at something because it feels interesting.
Exploration builds small competencies: You learn just enough to try something new.
Competence builds initiative: You start acting without needing permission.
Initiative builds agency: You trust your ability to figure things out.
Agency produces outcomes: You start making moves that compound over time.

High-agency individuals appear naturally capable, but their competence is the sum of hundreds of small curiosity-driven interactions. The internal belief — “I can make progress on my own” — shapes trajectory.

The Real Secret: Curiosity Makes You Unwait

Most people spend life waiting: for permission, clarity, a sign, confidence, or the perfect moment. Curiosity breaks that cycle. It pushes toward the unknown. Action follows naturally.

The trait that predicts those who build meaningful paths isn’t intelligence, discipline, or ambition — it’s persistent, childlike curiosity. It’s the spark behind every builder, explorer, founder, and creator.

Go with the flow

If there’s one thing to extract from all of this, it’s simple:

Follow the areas where your curiosity feels effortless.

Most people waste their lives trying to force themselves into shapes that match what’s expected of them. They chase socially validated interests, career paths that look good on paper, or fields that seem respectable. But these paths often have high internal friction. Every step feels heavy, slow, and unnatural.

Your curiosity points elsewhere: to the areas where your mind moves easily, where you naturally put in more repetitions, long before you realise their value. Exploration here feels like play, not work.

Lean into that.

Lean into what makes you unusual, what you return to even when no one is watching. Curiosity reduces friction, giving you more time to explore, tinker, and refine. More reps build intuition. Intuition builds skill. Skill builds confidence. Confidence leads to even more curiosity.

Curiosity is the map that points you toward the place where you’ll develop the fastest.

If you’re searching for direction, look for the questions you can’t ignore.

The ones that pull you.

The ones you follow without being told.

Those questions are the doorway.

Walk through them.