History Main / IThoughtEveryOneCouldDoThat

For the opposite trope, see GiftedlyBad, which is for a character who thinks they have great talent in something they are actually awful at.

* This is one part of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome Inpostor Syndrome]]: if you're genuinely skilled at something, [[{{ButForMeItWasTuesday}} 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.

* Cleverly played with in ''Manga/OnePiece''. When Luffy becomes friends with the inhabitants of Amazon Lily (who are all women by the way), all of them think that Luffy is the poster boy for men. Their logic is that since he can stretch, other men must be able to stretch as well.

* There are plenty of stories about people who previously identified as straight but believed everyone experienced same-gender attraction to a certain degree, and were surprised when it was pointed out that this is not the case.

** 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 an AbileneParadox in which they are expected to participate themselves. As for a concrete example of what an asexual person might assume to be everyone's experience due to it being their own, look no further than IgnoreTheFanservice.

** 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 an AbileneParadox in which they are expected to participate themselves.

* This is one part of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect Dunning Kruger Effect]]: if you're genuinely skilled at something, [[{{ButForMeItWasTuesday}} 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.

** Goku thought that every boy has a tail. Amusingly, when he tells Bulma, she gets upset that she still doesn't know about the male anatomy at her age.

** 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’s caught off-guard by just ''how much'' power Goku is hiding.

* ''Manga/HajimeNoIppo'': Woli is a 17 year-old boxer from an isolated island in Indonesia, whose physical abilities are nothing less than genius. In his match with Ippo, Woli performs a bunch of techniques that other high-level boxers are famous for but which none of them ever possessed all at the same time, and in fact comes up with these techniques by pure intuition without having ever seen them performed by anyone else. On top of this, Woli's unique movement patterns and the angles at which he is able to dodge or throw a punch are completely outside the box. While observing the fight, Ippo's senpai Takamura remarks that, "For someone like Woli, I don’t think he gets surprised by the stuff that other people can do, but by the stuff that other people can’t do."
* ''Literature/HowNotToSummonADemonLord'': Shera L. Greenwood has had the ability to see magical power flowing through the air since she was a child. It took her a while to find out that it takes a lot of training for other people to learn how to do that.

* In his honeymoon edition, ComicBook/SpiderMan mocks the idea that his web fluid was notable in any way and thought any idiot could do the same, but Fireheart's scientists made one that breaks easily, unlike his which is much more durable.
* ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} in the ''[[ComicBook/JLA1997 JLA: Year One]]'' series expresses this. He doesn't think of his abilities as powers because everyone can do it where he comes from. Likewise, ComicBook/MartianManhunter thinks of his abilities more as "skills" or "gifts of will" rather than powers.
* The Impossible Man from Marvel once watched a human fall from a building until she was rescued. When asked why he did nothing to attempt to save her, he said that he was wondering what she was going to shapeshift into to save herself, as that's what he would have done if he was in her situation.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Klara originally believed that everyone was capable of communicating with plants. Her horrified, god-fearing parents responded by sending her off to live with an abusive older man who beat her until she learned to suppress her abilities.
* When ComicBook/SquirrelGirl makes an appearance in ''[[ComicBook/{{X23}} All-New Wolverine]]'', we learn that she has been operating under the assumption that all [[AnimalThemedSuperbeing Animal-Themed Superbeings]] can communicate with the animal they're named after. In ''ComicBook/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl'', this belief results in a montage of her going to a whole bunch of feline-themed people to find one who can talk to cats. None could, but she ends up finding a [[TalkingAnimal talking cat]] who [[CatsAreMean refuses]] to help.
* Donna Dunlap from the ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' comics thought everyone had TelescopicVision and InnateNightVision when she was a child.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Diana herself is usually quite grounded and well aware of the limitations of regular humans compared to herself and other Amazons. However, when fellow Amazon 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.

[[folder:FanWorks]]

* In the ''My Little Pony'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheSonOfTheEmperor'', Twilight is surprised by the fact that something as mundane as lifting books or opening a door with magic is unheard of outside of Equestria. This is because unicorns are not allowed to practice magic beyond certain strict limits, and most of them can't perform even the most basic tasks.
* 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 is dumbfounded when the others explain that only rare estreens can morph one body part at a time.]]
* Tristan of ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' thinks that if you get angry, you turn into ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk. When told the truth, he says he thought everyone could do it.
* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2788917/8/Serpentine Serpentine]]'' Harry turns out to have a rare Potter family ability to animate his own artwork. When questioned he says he thought lots of people were able to do that.
* In ''Fanfic/TheStudentPrince'', Merlin doesn't realize that his magical ability is extraordinary even among sorcerers. He can stop time, expand his mind to cover thousands of miles and talk to Kilgharrah, and it's only when Gaius and Morgana tells him that he learns how unusual such talents are.

* In ''Fanfic/BuildYourWingsOnTheWayDown'', Edward has an unfortunate habit of assuming that every alchemist knows the details of more advanced alchemy [[spoiler: such as talking chimeras being made out of humans and chimeras being products of soul alchemy.]] This results him in thinking that Roy Mustang is a monster since he approved of Shou Tucker, not knowing that Roy doesn't know what Tucker did.
* ''The Sanctuary Telepath'': Janine thought her Source Blood-given abilities were the standard between telepaths. Ranna explains to her that what she can do even in Hollow Earth counts as ''terrific''.
* ''Fanfic/FamilyOfTheShield'' After speaking with the other three Heroes about how to further empower their Legendary Weapons using their individual methods, Naofumi Iwatani casually mentions that he has four RandomDropBooster Shields; which he had unlocked after feeding an [[CallingARabbitASmeerp Usapil]], [[GoldSilverCopperStandard Gold, Silver, and Copper Coins]] to his shield. Cue the surprise from Naofumi that had unlocked these Item Drop Bonuses on '''Day One''' of being in Melromarc, while the other three only knew about the Usapil method but didn't think to feed any of their own money to their Legendary Weapons in the '''Two Months''' they've all been in Melromarc to unlock those same Drop Bonuses.

* ''Fanfic/FatesCollide'': Mash Kyrielight is mystified when she finds out Jaune Arc's sword doesn't have any special abilities, since in her homeland, all weapons have a special property.
* Percy in ''Fanfic/SonOfTheWesternSea'' assumes that his ship control powers are just [[ComboPlatterPowers part of the parcel]] of being a child of Poseidon. Both Poseidon and Athena refer to it as an unexpected power, as while sailors prayed to Poseidon it was usually in his role as a god of storms and he admits not being much of a sailor. Both put it down to just being an unusual quirk as a side effect of being the [[SuperpowerLottery single most powerful demigod child]] Poseidon has ever fathered and his resulting ComboPlatterPowers. [[TemptingFate After all, it isn’t like the time a child of Zeus developed power over fruit…]]
* While very separate fanfics, both ''Fanfic/AvengerOfSteel'' and ''Fanfic/InfinityCrisis'' make references to how Thor (and other Asgardians) fail to mention various cosmic or fantastic items (from the Tesseract in the former to the existence of Atlantis in the latter) as they just naturally assume Earth is as knowledgeable about such things as the rest of the universe and thus see no need to bring up what they accept is "common knowledge." For example, both MCU Thor and EMH Thor never brought up the Savage Land because they thought it was already known, even believing that ''Film/JurassicPark'' was filmed there.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/416918/the-great-and-deathless-trixie The Great and Deathless Trixie,]]'' Trixie thinks nothing of dying and coming back to life a day later. She's died a few dozen times in her career from stage accidents, but since she's a traveling showpony, she never stuck around long enough to notice that no one else did the same.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' TransplantedCharacterFic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5716654/1/The-Blood-of-Kings The Blood of Kings]]'', privately-trained apprentice mage Aki has people brought in on occasion by her master so that she can practice healing magic on them. It's noted that she managed to completely heal someone from the brink of death in under fifteen minutes, but when asked about this, she brushes this off and says she's still in training and her master handles the ''really'' difficult cases. Unbeknownst to her, that level of healing is so impressive within the setting (even a master mage would take hours to heal a broken arm) that her master is able to pass her off as some kind of goddess.

* ''Fanfic/TheVastoOfWhite'': Lilynette has only known of Hollows her whole life, so she does not know that humans and Shinigami do not normally have a HealingFactor.
* In ''Fanfic/TheAwakeningOfAMagus'', Draco's [[SupernaturalSensitivity Scanner]] talent manifested when he was eight or so, but his family never noticed because he never considered it something worth talking about.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13829653/1/Marvelous-Exploits-beyond-the-Walls Marvelous Exploits beyond the Walls!]]'': [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder Bunyan]] somehow finds herself in the world of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. When she meets the Survey Corps after killing several Titans and wolves, [[InnocentlyInsensitive she comments killing the Titans is easy]], causing one of the scouts to angrily rant at her for [[NotAGame treating this like a game]] because the Titans had killed many of their friends. Bunyan apologizes and says even with her Master constantly reminding her, she often forgets that regular people are not as strong or fast as her and don't have her powers.
* ''Fanfic/GodOfHate'': Chapter 13 ends with the shocking revelation that Krista can [[spoiler: understand Eren in his Ghidorah form]]. She's as shocked as everyone else, having assumed that everyone else could [[spoiler: hear his growls as speech]].
* ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'': During his Greek lessons Sigurd accidentally outs himself as literate in front of his tutor and promptly gets confused by the man's shocked reaction. Coming from a place with universal literacy, he has a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that being able to read and write is somehow unusual.
* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/13900644/chapters/66663619#workskin Choices Have Side Effects]]'':
-->'''Snape:''' Harry, how do you tell the difference between the Weasley twins?\\
'''Harry:''' It's easy, they have different colors in their center. Yours is a bright yellow, Ironclaw is a bit on the reddish side, Griphook is a bit of a blue with green specks. Doesn't everyone see it?

** In another ''Farscape'' example (though this time more of "I Thought Everyone ''Couldn't'' Do That''), Crichton discovers that every member of Moya's crew has better eyesight than he does when he claims there's nothing written on a basin, and the others take turns reading the small warning text aloud.

* In one episode of ''Series/JustShootMe'', Jack and Elliot discover that the small, overly delicate Dennis Finch (David Spade) has a [[GagPenis penis whose size is such that it causes immediate crushing despair in other males at the sight of it]], and apparently has no clue that it's anything special.

:: Humorously, this is actually a rather wide-reaching (if funny) {{retcon}}; previous episodes had definitively established that Finch was on the extreme ''other'' end of the size scale, and was once confused for a woman when he was seen in a skin-tight bathing suit. For most of his life (until this episode) he really ''wasn't'' extra-big.

* In a sketch on ''Series/MadTV1995'', recurring character Rusty Miller, a geeky college student, is having a trivia contest with two girls, and infuriating them by getting every question right. Except the last question, which asks the average length of a penis. The girls get it right by answering six inches. Rusty protests that the machine is wrong, and the average is ten inches, then leaves the bar in disgust. The girls give each other a look, then rush out after him. [[HoYay As do several guys]].
* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "DNA", Kryten is turned human and has trouble adjusting. He's surprised to learn that human nipples can't pick up radio signals and that the only way for a human to zoom in on an object is to move their head closer to it.

%%* Similarly Billy on ''Series/SirensUS'' is massive but has no idea because his is the smallest in his family.

* ''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 was born blind and can only see through his VISOR.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' series, Albedo is shocked to learn that other people can't regenerate, including his brothers. This occurs after a very disturbing scene in which a child Albedo blows his own head off in front of his brothers with an energy blast, or a gun in the Japanese version. For great MoodWhiplash, he was only trying to be funny.

* This is a dialog option in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' when the Greybeards praise you for learning Words of Power so quickly. If you choose it, they will inform you that it takes many years of training for a non-dragonborn to learn a single Word of Power.
* Hina from ''VideoGame/BangDreamGirlsBandParty'' is TheAce who is amazing at almost everything she tries, first time. However, this sometimes leads to her being InnocentlyInsensitive because she genuinely doesn't really understand how people can try things and not be immediately good at them.

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'':
** Tedd [[http://www.egscomics.com/index.php?id=1945 thought]] [[spoiler:being able to "see" magic itself was something everyone could do if they focused their eyes just right. The funny thing is he had explicitly told people more than once that he had learned how to identify different spell effects by sight--they just thought he had invented a function for his glasses and was overstating himself a bit.]]
** In one of the earlier arcs, [[NaiveNewcomer Grace]] expected the rest of the group to have known that her fur is fireproof [[InsaneTrollLogic because she's a squirrel]]. They have to explain to her that squirrels don't ordinarily have fireproof fur.
* In ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'', Beret Guy is [[http://xkcd.com/1490/ surprised]] to learn that other people can't tell what atoms are in things just by looking at them. He wonders "How do you tell what things are?"

* ''Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'':
** The Commander asks why Ganondorf doesn't stop Link by stealing all the keys Link uses to get through the dungeons. Ganondorf says that wouldn't work, since everyone knows how to pick locks. The Commander points out that while everyone from a village of thieves knows how to pick locks, the kid who is risking his life to find keys probably doesn't.
** Kratos' son doesn't know that his father is a god, so he doesn't realize that feats of SuperStrength like lifting houses are unusual.
* ''Webcomic/GuildedAge'': Syr'Nj does not see the point in one having toes ("taproots") if one can't absorb water with them.
* In ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellett'', 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.

* Inverted [[https://notalwaysright.com/advancements-in-understanding/233311/ here]] on ''Website/NotAlwaysLearning'', with a man who is enraged that the school thinks his daughter is disabled. After all, doesn't ''everybody'' have trouble seeing black text on white paper? Turns out the daughter's visual processing disorder was hereditary, but nobody had diagnosed the father so he thought it was normal.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAlvinShow'': In one episode 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.
* ''WesternAnimation/LegendQuest'': In Episode 11 "The Chilan", when Alebrije sniffs out a portal of Yggdrasil, he's honestly surprised that humans can't identify magical places by smell.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In the Season 2 finale, 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".
* ''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.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E57ThePrimeMover The Prime Mover]]", Jimbo Cobb, a man with telekenetic powers who explains that when he was young he believed everyone had them. He only stopped using his when he found out that wasn't so, since he'd done a few things that had gotten him in trouble.

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]]

* In ''Literature/StarWarsThrawnAscendancyChaosRising'', it's implied that it took Thrawn some time to figure out that not everyone could SherlockScan like he can and infer tactics from artwork. Few people even believe that Thrawn can do it, although his superiors like Admiral Ar'alani and Supreme General Ba'kif are fully aware of his capabilities. In the book, he faces off against someone who can come close to his level of insight and planning, except that person doesn't understand art, preferring architecture. His opponent also has something Thrawn severely lacks — political awareness.

* Early in the ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' books, he neglects to mention what his tunnel instincts are telling him because it doesn't occur to him that his companion can't tell. He's aware that it's a talent not everyone possesses, it just seems to slip his mind for a moment. Further complicated by the fact that during his childhood on a [[CityPlanet Hive World]], everyone ''did'' actually have that same tunnel sense due to most of the population living underground.
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series:

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': At the climax of "Literature/TheMule", the Mule mentions that it took him awhile to figure out that other people couldn't [[EmotionControl manipulate emotions]], perhaps because, according to ''Literature/FoundationsEdge,'' he was from a planet where everyone really ''could'' do that, though he was unique in his willingness to do so without considering the well-being of the people being manipulated.

* Creator/KevinJAnderson's ''{{Literature/Hopscotch}}'': Darragon doesn't realize during the early part of his life that most people can't see auras. The subject comes up when he notices a BodySwap, so he does explain it as soon as it becomes relevant.

* ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'': Marsh dedicated his adult life to learning as much as he could about the [[CorruptChurch Steel Ministry]], but since he's a commoner and the Ministry is only open to nobles, he can only learn through underground channels. When called to infiltrate the Ministry, since Marsh didn't attend the training camps, he thinks that his ignorance will stand out, but he doesn't realize until it's too late that he stands out because he's ''more'' [[RightForTheWrongReasons knowledgeable than the average recruit]].
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls''' ''[[Literature/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsSunsetShimmersTimeToShine Sunset Shimmer's Time to Shine]]'': Sunset Shimmer, former star-student to [[PhysicalGod Princess Celestia]], [[TheExile exiled]] to the human world lacking magic posing as an ordinary high-school student, is being applauded for her amazing skills in mathematics and chemistry. She simply states that she didn't understand how anyone could have any problems with it since "you just memorize the formulas and where to use them" (not unlike learning spells). Cue shocked looks from her friends and her back-pedaling.
* Creator/AlastairReynolds's ''Literature/RevelationSpace'': Rashmika, from ''Absolution Gap'', is a LivingLieDetector. Until her late teens, she never lies, and becomes known for it in her village. It's not for any moral reason, though; she just assumes everyone would be able to tell if she did.
* ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'': William and Gamina both know that William can communicate telepathically with animals. But he doesn't realize that this is unusual, and she doesn't realize that [[AdultsAreUseless none of the adults know about it]].
* ''Literature/TheSookieStackhouseMysteries'': 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.
* In ''Literature/StarWarsThrawnAscendancyChaosRising'', it's implied that it took Thrawn some time to figure out that not everyone could SherlockScan like he can and infer tactics from artwork. Few people even believe that Thrawn can do it, although his superiors like Admiral Ar'alani and Supreme General Ba'kif are fully aware of his capabilities. In the book, he faces off against someone who can come close to his level of insight and planning, except that person doesn't understand art, preferring architecture. His opponent also has something Thrawn severely lacks — political awareness.

* Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/TheTalesOfAlvinMaker'': One of the, you might call it a problem, with "knacks", little skills that people are innately born with and can train to be even better, is that the person with the knack tends to not realize other people don't possess the same sort of skill. The narrator rambles in the fourth book:

* ''Literature/TawnyMan'': Fitz's daughter Nettle is a [=DreamWeaver=], but doesn't realize that this is anything special. She doesn't understand why other people have nightmares, because why would anyone want to stay in a dream they didn't like?

** [[https://xkcd.com/2501/ "Average Familiarity"]] discusses the tendency of experts in any given field to overestimate how much the layman knows about it, even when they actively try not to.

* ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'': Marsh dedicated his adult life to learning as much as he could about the [[CorruptChurch Steel Ministry]], but since he's a commoner and the Ministry is only open to nobles, he can only learn through underground channels. When called to infiltrate the Ministry, since Marsh didn't attend the training camps, he thinks that his ignorance will stand out, but he doesn't realize until it's too late that he stands out because [[RightForTheWrongReasons he's ''more'' knowledgeable than the average recruit]].

* Related with above is partial ambidexterity all left-handed people end up possessing. Since their natural reaction is to do various things left-handed, while whole lot of objects are made and build to be used right-handed, the result is a lifetime of practice in using both arms. Nowhere near the level of actual ambidexterity, but still enough to make southpaws completely confused when watching right-handed people utterly failing at even most basic tasks when forced or not able to use their dominant hand. And that all without mentioning people that are simply ambidexterious.

** 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.]]

* Can sometimes occur alongside the HardWorkFallacy where a person unaware of the advantages they had (parental connections, private tutoring, socioeconomic factors...) truly believes they got to where they are solely by their merits. This is often described as, "being born on third base but convinced you hit a triple."

* Emily from ''Fanfic/SixesAndSevens'' always knew she was a little stronger than normal, but it takes her kicking a werewolf across a room and healing severe injuries in a matter of days to consider that there might be something else going on. The story implies that she's a late-blooming [[ComicBook/XMen mutant]].

* The documentary program ''The Science of the Senses'' described a man with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia face blindness]] who never realized how different he was until late in his life, when his mate told him that all the "confusing" close-ups in films (for him, the characters become unrecognizable if he can only see their faces) aren't actually confusing for ordinary people.

* ''Fanfic/FamilyOfTheShield'' After speaking with the other three Heroes about how to further empower their Legendary Weapons using their individual methods, Naofumi Iwatani casually mentions that he has four RandomDropBooster Shields; which he had unlocked after feeding an [[CallingARabbitASmeerp Usapil]], [[GoldSilverCopperStandard Gold, Silver, and Copper Coins]] to his shield. Cue the surprise from Naofumi that had unlocked these Item Drop Bonuses on '''Day One''' of being in Melromarc, while the other three only knew about the Usapil method but didn't think to feed any of their own money to their Legendary Weapons in the two months they've all been in Melromarc to unlock those same Drop Bonuses.

* ''Fanfic/FamilyOfTheShield'' After speaking with the other three Heroes about how to further empower their Legendary Weapons using their individual methods, Naofumi Iwatani casually mentions that he has four RandomDropBooster Shields; which he had unlocked after feeding an [[CallingARabbitASmeerp Usapil]], [[GoldSilverCopperStandard Gold, Silver, and Copper Coin]] to his shield. Cue the surprise from Naofumi that had unlocked these Item Drop Bonuses on Day One of being in Melromarc while the other three that only knew about the Usapil method but didn't think to feed any of their own money to their Legendary Weapons in the months they've all been in Melromarc to unlock those same Drop Bonuses.

For the opposite trope, see GiftedlyBad, which is for a character who think they have great talents in something they are actually awful at.

* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2788917/8/Serpentine Serpentine]]'' Harry turns out to have a rare Potter family ability to animate his own artwork. When questioned he says "I thought lots of people were able to do that."

* ''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, he immediately recognises that it has the potential to revolutionise the whole field of potion brewing, but still, hardly anyone can replicate her feat.

** 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 ''TabletopGame/{{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.

* When ComicBook/SquirrelGirl makes an appearance in ''[[ComicBook/{{X23}} All-New Wolverine]]'', we learn that she has been operating under the assumption that all [[AnimalThemedSuperbeing Animal-Themed Superbeings]] can communicate with the animal they're named after. In ''Comicbook/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl'', this belief results in a montage of her going to a whole bunch of feline-themed people to find one who can talk to cats. None could, but she ends up finding a [[TalkingAnimal talking cat]] who [[CatsAreMean refuses]] to help.

* In ''FanFic/TheGreatAlicornHunt'', Pinkie's pinkie powers are explained to be the result of a rare form of earth magic that lets her perceive and operate in many more dimensions than the norm.

* In a sketch on ''Series/MadTV'', recurring character Rusty Miller, a geeky college student, is having a trivia contest with two girls, and infuriating them by getting every question right. Except the last question, which asks the average length of a penis. The girls get it right by answering six inches. Rusty protests that the machine is wrong, and the average is ten inches, then leaves the bar in disgust. The girls give each other a look, then rush out after him. [[HoYay As do several guys]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', Fairies are resurrected when killed so long as the element of nature they represent continues to exist. They don't seem to understand death as it applies to humans and thus don't see why it's a problem to set humans on fire or lead them off cliffs as a prank.

* ''LightNovel/HowNotToSummonADemonLord'': Shera L. Greenwood has had the ability to see magical power flowing through the air since she was a child. It took her a while to find out that it takes a lot of training for other people to learn how to do that.

* ''Fanfic/FamilyOfTheShield'' After speaking with the other three Heroes about how to further empower their Legendary Weapons using their individual methods, Naofumi Iwatani casually mentions that he has four RandomDropBooster Shields; which he had unlocked after feeding an [[CallingARabbitASmeerp Usapil]], [[GoldSilverCopperStandard Gold, Silver, and Copper Coin]] to his shield. Cue the shock from the other three that they didn't think to feed any of their money to their own Legendary Weapons in the months they've all been in Melromarc to unlock those same Drop Bonuses while Naofumi already did it on Day One.

* In the ''Radio/CabinPressure'' episode "Yverdon-Les-Bains", Martin memorises the ''entire'' six hundred page Air Swiss manual, because if you ''don't'' do that, how do you know what you're doing? He therefore becomes the first person to score 100% on the famously difficult Air Swiss exam, prompting them to assume he cheated, much to his confusion. Some of the questions involve obscure facts about other airlines entirely; Martin thought those ones were "general knowledge" that any twelve-year-old would know.