sent from: London, UK. destination: Los Angeles, California, USA

First day of work in 2012 and I left it feeling inadequate, fraudulent, undeserving. Ideas were suggested that I should have come up with; problems realised that I should have spotted weeks ago. Maria expressed similarly strong feelings about her own day. What’s going on here? She is one of the sharpest, cleverest, most mentally agile and creative people I know. I know she is more than capable at her job, and she says similarly generous things about me; and though she has an obvious bias, I would like to think that her peceptions aren’t completely wrong. So how is it that both of us feel so not up to the task? Are our co-workers that much better? Let us assume that we are average – yes, to parents who would not accept a “C” grade – average. Average isn’t bad, average is average, which in a bunch of very-smart people can’t be too bad. Most people believe themselves to be above-average drivers, which is an impossibility – 50% must by definition, be above, and 50% below. Might we be, horror of horrors, in the below-average bracket? I can’t bring myself to believe it, because… well, of myself I cannot say, but my wife isn’t below anything – she’s exceptional! Extraordinary! Extrasupercalifragilisticexpialidocious!