You need to think about sampling as well.. how good (you think) you are depends a lot on who you are comparing yourself to. Like those who were top of their class in school ... then went to a top-flight university and were shocked to find out that they were struggling at the bottom of their new peer-group. It is easy to think that you are the bees' knees when you are surrounded by jaded, cynical and burnt-out engineers, and you still have the energy and naive optimism of youth.