kicking puppies is bad

There are many incompetent people in the world. And unfortunately most of them don’t know it. In fact, several studies have shown that incompetent people really have no clue that they are useless (see: San Francisco Chronicle article titled Incompentent People Really Have No Clue).Yes, the vast majority of people rate themselves as above average on most simple tasks*. And they are generally wrong more often than not. In many cases, it has been shown that the worse a person performs, the better they rate themselves. The most often cited article on the BTA (better than average) effect is probably Svenson (1981) which found that the VAST majority of people rate themselves as above-average drivers. I read the study a long time ago. And I am too lazy to actually look up the real numbers. But if I remember correctly, well over 90% of people rated themselves as “above average” drivers (or maybe it was 80%). And 90% (or 80%) of people cannot be above average.

This is one of those cases where I am in the minority. I readily admit that I am a crummy driver. I don’t talk on my cellphone when I drive. I keep both hands on the wheel. I *really* try to be a good driver. I still suck at it (you can ask triangle_girl – she is terrified of riding in a car with me). I’m generally good at multitasking, but somehow when I am driving I always get distracted. I don’t mean to drive at the wrong speed (randomly too fast or too slow). I don’t mean to cut people off, or to be generally unaware of my surroundings. But I am. It isn’t intentional.

So, to the nasty green SUV that screamed profanity at me today while aggressively passing me and flipping me off: I’m sorry. I didn’t actually mean to be a “f*cking c*nt” (thanks for pointing it out). I wasn’t intoxicated. I wasn’t purposely trying to screw you over. I’m just a crummy driver. They should probably take my license away. But they probably won’t. Because I rarely hit people.

* Note: these same people rate themselves as below average on difficult tasks (like riding a unicycle). This assumption on their part is also generally incorrect.