History Main / IThoughtEveryOneCouldDoThat

* A variant appears in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', during the first fight with Father. He [[AntiMagic turns off the alchemy]], but Scar and May can still transmute.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': While Di is usually quite grounded and well aware of the limitations of regular humans compared to herself and other Amazons when Mala ended up in New York after getting kicked out of her airplane back during the [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Golden Age]] she had a very difficult time adjusting to the difference in power levels and didn't quite understand that regular people can't just pick up a truck or punch through a stone wall.

* At the end of the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' fanfic ''[[Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}} The Thing from Another World]]'', [[spoiler:everyone is surprised when Tom partially morphs his face into a snake's just to freak Marco out. Tom thinks it's just basic morphing, but the others point out that only estreens can morph one body part at a time.]]

** Throughout the series, Sheldon's genius [=I.Q.=] allows him to grasp abstract concepts like subatomic physics, quantum mechanics, and other such advanced scientific fields, and his eidetic memory allows him to recall minor details and become a world renowned scientist. Unfortunately this also gives him a feeling of superiority, and quickly gets annoyed whenever he feels he has to "dumb down" to level of everyone else, who should be able to grasp the same information he can.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "Heart of Glory", the bridge crew are given an opportunity to see through Geordi La Forge's VISOR, and notice that Data (when viewed through the VISOR) is emitting an aura of light. When questioned about this, Geordi is surprised to learn that this aura is not visible to the other officers, as he can only see through his VISOR.

** Likewise, suppressing one's power level is a common, basic ability on Earth and Namek that, again, even the weakest members of the cast are capable of. However, off-world this ability is completely unheard of outside transformations like Zarbon and Frieza's, which allows the heroes to hide from them on Namek or ambush an enemy by powering up. Vegeta manages to ambush and kill off Cui and Dodoria using this, as they don't realize he's now strong enough to curbstomp them until it's too late. Only Captain Ginyu seems to have heard of the ability before in some mutants (such as himself), and therefore he isn't caught off-guard by the fact that Goku is hiding his power… though he is caught off-guard by just ''how much'' power Goku is hiding.

** In one episode, Leonard, Sheldon, Amy, and Penny discuss who's smarter, men or women, and to settle the debate, they play a game of Pictionary. Penny and Amy end up dominating the game because the clues they give each other would allow anyone of average intelligence to guess the right answer after a few tries. The clues and answers Sheldon gave to Leonard only made perfect sense inside Sheldon's mind.

* In ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellet'', the small alien named Skitter can sense gravity waves through the Mohawk-like comb on his skull. Being an amnesiac, he doesn't realize at first that other species don't have the same ability. This would make his people extremely precious as navigators and pilots for everybody using FTL travel... if only they could find others of his kind.

* This is one part of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect Dunning Kruger Effect]]: if you're genuinely skilled at something, that skill becomes part of your normal routine and [[CentipedesDilemma you stop noticing when you're using it]]. This gradually causes you to overestimate the ability of others in relation to yourself, as you'll erroneously presume that tasks easy for you to perform are also easy for other people to perform.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1454 SCP-1454]] is a set of four identical men who have a shared memory. They see nothing unusual about this; as far as they know, it's perfectly normal for a human being to have memories of working over 200 hours per week and having had more than one first kiss.

* More or less by definition, you probably won't know if this trope applies to you, unless someone else spots it and points it out.

* ''Literature/SouthernVampireMysteries'': Several books after finding she can see through fairies' glamours and assuming it's just because she's part fairy herself, Sookie learns that no, most other fairies see what humans see, and her ability is considered a powerful gift.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'':

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAlvinShow'' we meet Dave's country cousin, Chuck Wagon, who claims he can't do anything. Alvin, Simon, and Theodore decide to help him find some sort of talent, all of which fail miserably. They and Dave are later astonished to find him playing Theodore's guitar and singing about how he has no talent. As it turned out, where he came from, everyone could play the guitar and sing so it never occurred to him that it was anything special.
* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/LegendQuest'' Episode 11 "The Chilan" when Alebrije finds a portal of Yggdrasil.
--> '''Marcella:''' Wait a minute. You can ''smell'' magical spaces?
--> '''Alebrije:''' You ''can't''?
* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' features a variation when Ensign D'Vana Tendi creates a dog that can (among other things) fly, shapeshift, and speak English. She somehow assumed that all Earth dogs could do such things and didn't realize that she'd created a new species.
* During one part of the season two finale of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', Peridot pushes Greg off a roof [[ForScience to see if all lifeforms can fly,]] and has to be told that humans are "fragile and soft".
* In ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', Light Hope, an AI, is surprised when Adora, a human, tells her that humans can't remember what happened to them when they're infants.

* ''LightNovel/BeastTamerAndTheCatGirl'':
** Rein is oblivious to just how talented as a Beast Tamer he is, as he can contract with both the Strongest Species and multiple normal animals when normally a Beast Tamer is limited to only a single normal animal. This is due to having spent his childhood in a village full of Beast Tamers like himself before it was destroyed, and not really coming into contact with "normal" Beast Tamers since. It's not until Kanade points out just how impressive he is that Rein starts to realize it himself and begins to experiment with things he would not have tried before, such as [[spoiler:trying to "overwrite" another Beast Tamer's contract to take control of a Behemoth]].
** This goes to his previous team as well. After they kicked him out, thinking of him as dead weight, they were surprised to find out how weak Beast Tamers were compared to him. When they tried to get the other Beast Tamers to do even a fraction of what Rein used to do, the Beast Tamers think they are nuts for expecting that much.

* A decent number of autistic people report being able to understand other autistic people about as well as neurotypical people understand each other, and would lay the same criticism toward neurotypical people [[DoubleStandard for not making the effort to understand them the same way they've had to learn to understand neurotypical people]]. Dubbed [[https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2021.554875 the double empathy problem]], it posits that non-autistic people also have trouble figuring out what autistic people are thinking and feeling. This is also backed up by a study examining the transfer of information between autistic individuals - [[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341523903_Autistic_peer-to-peer_information_transfer_is_highly_effective researchers found that autistic people were able to convey information to their peers just as well as their neurotypical counterparts were.]]

* Anyone who wears glasses has experienced the sensation of when they were first given a pair and finally understanding what the world ''really'' looks like. Related to this is the following: People whose eyesight was (more or less) fine when they were younger and has degraded to the point that even the most stubborn of them will admit to needing glasses, but they don't realize the full extent of the problem until they get their first pair.

* Tristan of ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' thinks that if you get angry, you turn into the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk. When told the truth, he says he thought everyone could do it.

** When it comes to stories about people who took a while to realize they are asexual and/or aromantic, a recurring major factor is getting the idea that sexual and/or romantic attraction are social constructs maintained via AbileneParadox.

* ''LightNovel/BeastTamerAndTheCatGirl'': Rein is oblivious to just how talented as a Beast Tamer he is, as he can contract with both the Strongest Species and multiple normal animals when normally a Beast Tamer is limited to only a single normal animal. This is due to having spent his childhood in a village full of Beast Tamers like himself before it was destroyed, and not really coming into contact with "normal" Beast Tamers since. It's not until Kanade points out just how impressive he is that Rein starts to realize it himself and begins to experiment with things he would not have tried before, such as [[spoiler:trying to "overwrite" another Beast Tamer's contract to take control of a Behemoth]].

* ''LightNovel/BeastTamerAndTheCatGirl'': Rain is oblivious to just how talented as a Beast Tamer he is, as he can contract with both the Strongest Races and multiple normal animals when normally a Beast Tamer is limited to only a single normal animal. This is due to having spent his childhood in a village full of Beast Tamers like himself before it was destroyed, and not really coming into contact with "normal" Beast Tamers since. It's not until Kanade points out just how impressive he is that Rain starts to realize it himself and begins to experiment with things he would not have tried before, such as [[spoiler:trying to "overwrite" another Beast Tamer's contract to take control of a Behemoth]].

** ''Literature/SmallGods'': Brutha never forgets anything, never has dreams, and always knows his exact location on land. He eventually does realize that the first isn't true of everybody, yet the concept of "forgetting" remains extremely perplexing to him.

* In ''WesternAnimation/SheraAndThePrincessesOfPower'', Light Hope, an AI, is surprised when Adora, a human, tells her that humans can't remember what happened to them when they're infants.

* Invoked in the ''Literature/XWingSeries''. When reforming Rogue Squadron, Wedge chooses one pilot over another to join the squad as his executive officer, even though the pilot that's suggested for him is renowned and the pilot he wants is a suspected traitor who will have severe restrictions placed on his behavior. Later, attrition catches up to Rogue Squadron, and he brings the other pilot in, though not as his XO, and explains to her that he's seen her fly before. Her skill as a pilot, he believes, can't be taught, and what he needs from his XO is, among other things, a trainer. Picking her would result in her being frustrated and his pilots bewildered (and possibly dead). But now there's room on the squadron, she's definitely earned a spot with her skill.

* ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'': When Harry asks her mentor for references on imbuing shaped magic into potions, perhaps under another name, she has a hard time getting through to him at first, because no-one has ever heard of such a thing before, and he believes it doesn't even make sense as a concept. To her, it seemed quite natural after learning to consciously imbue unshaped magic into a potion, and learning to control magic without a wand. Once she demonstrates it, though, he immediately recognises that it has the potential to revolutionise the whole field of potion brewing.

** When she uses magic, she is prone to AchievementsInIgnorance from a mix of drawing wrong conculusions from observing others do magic and assumptions based on how she came to imagine magic working from her previous life.

** On Earth, sensing ki is a ''basic'' ability that even the absolute weakest Z-Fighter is capable of by the time the Saiyans arrived. Despite this, off world, this is apparently an extremely rare ability, and ''no-one'' in Frieza's entire army is capable of it and they have to rely on the use of Scouters. The heroes take this so much for granted that it's halfway through his fight with Final Form Frieza before Goku ''realizes'' that Frieza can't do it, much to his surprise.
** Likewise, suppressing one's power level is a common, basic ability on Earth and Namek that, again, even the weakest members of the cast are capable of. However, off world this ability is completely unheard of outside transformations like Zarbon and Frieza's, which allows the heroes to hide from them on Namek or ambush an enemy by powering up. Vegeta manages to ambush and kill off Cui and Dodoria using this, as they don't realize he's now strong enough to curbstomp them until it's too late. Only Captain Ginyu seems to have heard of the ability before in some mutants (such as himself), and therefore he isn't caught off-guard by the fact that Goku is hiding his power… though he is caught off-guard by just ''how much'' power Goku is hiding.

Generally, characters like this are either a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, CaptainOblivious, a FishOutOfWater, or very young and inexperienced. Depending on the feat, this can also be an [[AchievementsInIgnorance Achievement in Ignorance]]. TruthInTelevision--you can only experience your own mind, so it makes sense to assume that others' minds work the same way unless proven otherwise.

** In the sequel series, ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', the first time Gohan goes to school, he ends up playing baseball. He grew up among superhuman fighters and didn't realize that the average person can't jump 30 feet into the air. When he does realise it, he covers it up as a "fluke" and tries to hide his superhuman strength, and does so by not hitting a pitch while batting. What he didn't realise is that while doing so, he took the full impact of a fastball directly to his head without flinching--which was done by a JerkJock with the intention of making him flinch and recoil in shock and/or fear to embarrass him--which is something that the average person cannot do, and so, while Gohan thought that he lucked out, everyone around him stood stunned. By a similar margin he's caught off-guard at the idea of having to teach Videl about ki and manipulating it in order to fly; while he realizes that flight is a rare skill, he never considered that the concept of ki would be such an unknown to people.[[note]]Though, given that Gohan was on world-wide news fighting Vegeta and Nappa (at least until Nappa got rid of the nearby journalists) at the age of five, his own father had won the World Martial Arts tournament in a ki-filled fight with Piccolo Jr. years beforehand, and was at the Cell Games, which globally broadcast Goku and Cell flying and ki-attacking each other, it's less that Gohan was surprised that ordinary people didn't know about ki and flight, and more that he was dumbfounded to learn that the [[HumansAreMorons entire planet had forgotten all about it within a decade.]][[/note]]

** Likewise, suppressing one's power level is a common, basic ability on Earth and Namek that, again, even the weakest members of the cast are capable of. However, off world this ability is completely unheard of outside transformations like Zarbon and Frieza's, which allows the heroes to hide from them on Namek or ambush an enemy by powering up. Vegeta manages to ambush and kill off Cui and Dodoria using this, as they don't realize he's now strong enough to curbstomp them until it's too late. Only Captain Ginyu seems to have heard of the ability before in some mutants (such as himself), and therefore he isn't caught off-guard by the fact that Goku is hiding his power... though he is caught off-guard by just ''how much'' power Goku is hiding.