Originally Posted by
ChickenLips
You're overlooking "assumed knowledge".
What is obvious, easy and second nature to you, you assume to be resident with others. I'm not an engineer, but got hired to work under one who had a masters. I was very familiar with the system and doing redesign work which the engineer needed to stamp. If you could break system knowledge into about 5 grades, I was making changes at grade 5. I was explaining these changes to the engineer as I was doing them, and his level of knowledge was greater than those he reported to. After about a year, with many, many discussions my engineer friend came in with a question. I was pleased as he was finally asking questions. His Q was at a grade 1 level, with an answer that was obvious to me on a a righty tighty level of assumed knowledge. What was obvious to me, was not obvious to him. I assumed because it was obvious, he would know it too.
A long winded story to say, don't underestimate yourself, or overestimate your competition. The real kicker is to an outsider, you and the competition are viewed as equal.