A sign of growth
If you look back on yourself and you cringe or feel you were an idiot at some time in the past, it’s a sure sign you’ve grown.
I look back at the textbooks and notes I used when I learned Japanese and, more often than not, I can’t remember a time I didn’t know that stuff.
The knowledge had accumulated enough, and it had accumulated long enough ago, that it had become a part of me.
An idiot today, a wise man tomorrow.