Driving Dr. Rush

I am a good driver. Not in the Rain Man sense, but genuinely a good driver. I actually think about what I'm doing. I pay attention to who and what's around me, constantly. I signal. I'm able to think and act quickly in an emergency situation. When I pass someone on the freeway, I don't take a half hour to do it. I'm not an overly-cautious, scaredy-cat driver, as that's not safe either. I drive intelligently. I am a rare creature.

For the most part, people learn a set of actions for driving, and then simply go through those motions for the rest of their lives. They just do it, and don't think about it. I've seen people driving through heavy fog, rain or snowfall with no headlights. Why? Because headlights are to help you see, right? And it's daytime, so headlights aren't going to help any, right? No – part of the function of headlights is to make you more visible. But in driving, for the most part people don't think, they just do.

For a long time I've said that, in most fields of human activity, if a person doesn't know how to do something, they either learn, or they don't do it. The exception is driving – many people who don't know how to drive, do it nonetheless.

Recently I was thinking about this and realized there's another activity it applies to: psychiatry. So, the pithy saying is herein amended to:

In most fields of human activity, if a person doesn't know how to do something, they either learn, or they don't do it. There are two exceptions: driving and psychiatry.

You can quote me.