> Yup. I started a post earlier today, but I
>couldn't complete my thoughts to my satisfaction and
>dumped it. But I was trying to hypothesize about
>what things people might *not* think better of
>themselves than is realistic. I wonder if most
>people would consider that they have below average
>artistic talent, or below average avoidance of
>procrastination, etc. Only one way to find out.
>Time to start a series of polls.

Right. After I posted my post, I realized that my idea only really fits for a specific subset of things you might ask people to evaluate themselves on. There are definitely certain things where it's "fashionable" to claim below-average skill in when in fact you've got above-average or excellent skill.

Also, I think people generally rate themselves low in artistic and creative ability, because, as a general rule, people with artistic or creative talent have low self esteem. ;-)

Personally, if someone asked me face-to-face "rate your skill as a writer" I'd probably say "average" or "slightly above average." In an anonymous poll, I'd rate myself higher because then it wouldn't seem so much like bragging. Also, it wouldn't provoke the obvious follow-up questions of "what have you written?" and "can I read it?" and "OOOoooh, I SOOOOooo love to write!!"

Bah.

-- Dave