With a lot of things:

You start off with no knowledge, and it’s a big mystery.

You gain some knowledge and feel like you have understanding.

You gain a lot more knowledge and you learn how much more there is that isn’t known.

The President is either at stage 1 or stage 3, take your pick.

How is your life going for you so far?

Works hard kind of smart

vs

lazy, doesn’t try for more than 5 minutes, gets repeatedly told “you have so much potential if you would apply yourself” kind of smart