Anecdotally his fitness reports rated him well above average in the classroom, excellent in the field, fluently bilingual in English and French, passable in Spanish, outstanding on all man-portable weaponry, and beyond outstanding at hand-to-hand combat. Susan knew what that last rating meant. Like having a running chainsaw thrown at you

The average detective story is probably no worse than the average novel, but you never see the average novel. It doesn’t get published. The average — or only slightly above average — detective story does…. Whereas the good novel is not at all the same kind of book as the bad novel. It is about entirely different things. But the good detective story and the bad detective story are about exactly the same things, and they are about them in very much the same way.

I didn’t have a very starry school career, I was medium to above average, nothing special.

Not saying I rate myself lots now, but I rate myself more because I’ve been exercising. I’d say a six now. Just above average. There are a lot of good-looking people out there, you see, so more than six is getting a bit cocky.

Most of us hide behind egocentric biases that generate the illusion that we are special. These self-serving protective shields allow us to believe that each of us is above average on any test of self-integrity. Too often we look to the stars through the thick lens of personal invulnerability when we should also look down to the slippery slope beneath our feet.

We’ve become so used to the concept as a measuring and sorting tool, that it and its correlates – below-average, above-average – are everyday speech. We don’t even question the language, although the challenges we face require a different mindset.