Before somebody else told you, or before you read about it, or saw it on TV, or heard it on the radio, or got influenced in some way by another human being, what’s the first thing you discovered independently that has proven to be true and valuable to you to this day?
This thread suggested by the one on Bullshit you’ve been told, with kudos to Mouse_Maven for the idea.
That sadly a petting zoo is not what the name indicates.
Painful lesson.
air goes in…
air goes out…
The stove is hot.
I learned to read by asking Dad “what are you doing?”
“reading”
“what’s reading?”
“explanation”
followed by several turns of “what’s that say?”
Since Spanish has phonetic spelling, figuring out that “A always sounds ‘a’” wasn’t too difficult. By the time my parents found out I could read, I had already figured out that “in a dictionary all the words that start by the same letter are together” but hadn’t realized yet that they’re ordered by second-letter, third-letter, etc after the ordering by initial.
Nerd genes, yay!
Don’t eat sand.
Whistling. I slightly remember I was trying to repeat the sound from an air alarm. For a looong time I could only get a pfffft sound regardless of how much I tried. Then suddenly it just happened. I made a clear whistling sound. It was one of them moments, just like when one discover girls 
May I modify the OP a bit? After much thought trying to locate “the first thing” in my own experiences, it’s obvious from the replies and my own memories that the “very first” stuff is pretty trivial and non-post-worthy. Either that or too painful to get too descriptive about.
Let’s say “the first useful thing” or maybe practical thing. Anyway, something you would have picked up from experience by the time you started school.
Still have it be something you learned independent of outside human influence, even if it applies to human behavior.
In my case, I think I learned about things dying and the effect it had on them before anybody told me about it. Just guessing, but if it wasn’t that then it must have been that I could trust the grownups I came in contact with not to hurt me or do bad things to me. I was what they called “a loving child” I think.
I can’t remember how young I was but I do remember making the correlation of how atoms are very similar to our solar system. I even took it a step further (With out the aid of drugs) and pondered to myself: “How do we know we’re not the inhabitants of an atom in some giant dudes universe?”
Then I saw “Animal House” and about shat my pants. :smack:
I remember realizing I could read by looking at the bottle of Bactine that mom was doctoring up one of my boo-boo’s with. I said to her “no sting - no stain”.
Also remember teaching myself how to tie a bow (on the belt of a hideously ugly green with white polka dots polyester jumpsuit).
I don’t remember any of those “Eureka” moments, myself. Does that mean I’m old?
I must be old too, 'cause I can’t recall any specific moments of self-realization as a toddler or anything.
I did, and still do, have a pretty logical mind when it comes to fixing things around the house. I can still remember when I was about 12 and my dad was away on business, the washing machine broke and I told my Mum I’d have a look at it. She was skeptical but any help getting laundry done for the next week would be nice.
It took me about 5 minutes to figure out that the reason for the tub not spinning might be related to the lid, since well, the tub always stopped spinning when the lid was opened, so maybe the machine thinks the lid is open when it’s not. I figured out how to take the top off the machine and voila! A detached mercury switch on the door hinge. Snap into place. Reassemble top. Close lid. Turn on and machine is back in service. I’ll never forget the look on my Mum’s face when I emerged from the basement within 20 minutes and told her it was all fixed and running.
I learned how to ride a bike.
In the front yard of my childhood home, there was a tree around which the big kids had worn a path with their bicycles. I had a bike with training wheels, but I couldn’t keep up with them. One day while the big kids were at school, I was playing around that tree. I’d coast down one side of the path and when I reached the bottom, I’d get off the bike and push it back up the other side and do it again. After a while, I happened to look down and I realized that I was pedalling back up the hill!
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was so proud that I didn’t need the training wheels anymore and couldn’t wait to ride with the big kids. I was so disappointed when I realized that although I could ride by myself, I still couldn’t keep up with them
Learning the concept of counting to 100, especially once you get out of the teens. I still remember the light bulb going off above my head: "oh, just say “twenty”, then “one”, then say “twenty”, then say “two”. Repeat this process until you say “nine”, then start over at thirty. Repeat until you get to 100
I learned I could take apart anything at all, if I wasn’t being closely watched that day.
Drawing in perspective. I discovered how to make a vanishing point and create 3-D letters, and to draw the waving folds of the U.S. flag. I was in 3rd grade.
I don’t know if it was the first thing, but when I was in third grade, the class was voting on something; I no longer remember what. One group of kids was convinced that their suggestion would win, because they thought it was better. I gauged how many people seemed to prefer the other option. Quite a few more.
As I was marking my ballot, I realized that this was how voting worked. You voted for what or who you preferred, because you wanted to show your support for that agenda or person. So if 18 people preferred option B, and only 6 preferred option A, option B would win, if people voted for what they wanted. If you really wanted option B, as I did, then it was imperative that you vote that way. And if option A was so much better, it was up to that group to convince people, which in this case was coming down to “Then I won’t be your friend.” The voting results had to reflect what the majority really wanted. And if they didn’t, it would still be assumed that they did.
Kinda scary.
I distinctly remember teaching myself to read when I was 4.
Gravity, while necessary, can be a real bitch.
I don’t remember being taught about death, but I remember meditating on it when I was about five. Everything dies, I realized; I would eventually die.
Even Wayne Gretzky would eventually die.