Everyone driving slower than you is an idiot and everyone driving faster than you is a maniac.

We're all the reasonable one

We all do this, don't we? We have this invisible speed that feels objectively correct—the comfortable, sensible pace—and everyone else seems to be either crawling or reckless. The funny part is that everyone thinks they're the reasonable one in the middle, judging everyone else as extremes. It's not really about driving.

This reveals something about how we judge the world: we tend to treat our own choices as rational responses to reality, while other people's different choices look like character flaws. Someone saving aggressively isn't prudent to them—they're just responding to what they perceive as risk. The person spending freely isn't irresponsible—they're responding to a different calculation. But we rarely see it that way. We see our speed as wisdom and theirs as stupidity or recklessness.

The trick is recognizing that most people aren't idiots or maniacs. They're just operating from different information, priorities, or risk tolerance than you are. That shift—from "they're wrong" to "they're different"—actually changes how you move through the world. It makes you less defensive and a bit more curious. And maybe, if you're lucky, slightly less insufferable on the highway.