The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion or ethnic background, is that... — Dave Barry

The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion or ethnic background, is that we all believe we are above-average drivers.

Author: Dave Barry

Insight: We're all living inside a comfortable lie about ourselves, and nowhere is it more obvious than behind the wheel. Ask anyone if they're a good driver, and you'll almost never hear genuine doubt—just a sheepish grin and maybe some qualifier about "other people" being the real problem. The road brings out this particular blind spot because driving feels personal. We're alone in our metal box, making split-second decisions that feel effortless to us, while everyone else seems reckless or incompetent. What makes this funny is how universal it is. It crosses every boundary we normally use to divide ourselves. The thing that unites us isn't shared values or goals—it's this specific, stubborn delusion about our own competence. And honestly, that's oddly reassuring. It means we're all equally prone to overestimating ourselves, which somehow makes the human condition feel less lonely. The darker angle worth noticing: this same bias shows up everywhere else too. We think our work is above average, our judgment is sound, our relationship problems are mostly someone else's fault. We're not stupid or vain—we're just operating with incomplete information about ourselves. The gap between how we see ourselves and how we actually perform is the space where most of our real problems live.