Always assuming that you fall short of the median appears to be a conscious exercise in humility. Being humble is usually regarded as a virtue. Being humble is not so easy, cuz if it were the world would be a hell of a different place. The problem with this approach is that you are being ungenerous towards yourself and your own hard-won abilities.
But you know, there is a difference between assuming you are one thing or another and how you project yourself to the world. I would imagine that what is most difficult is accurately and generously assessing your own ability (in different situations) and also fairly and generously assessing the abilities of others. What is important then is that if you find that you are "better" than someone at whatever that you are humble about it and that if you are "worse" that you are not envious about it.
In short Derek I believe that you have swung from one extreme to another and shot past the more difficult happy mean.
I also believe that there are any number of false dichotomies at play here. I can assume (better yet, know) that I am above the average at something and still not act like others around me are dumb. Same with asking questions. Obviously if I think that I'm hot stuff it may appear that an instant consequence of this is that I'll stop asking questions and stop listening but it's very likely that these traits are needed to push you above the average in the first place and it would be _dumb_ to abandon them when you're out in front.
Those statistics appear to lack citations and are meaningless out of context as well, but that's another thing.
I'm sorry but I'm not impressed at all and I feel that these posts of Mr Siver's are framed in a superficial home-spun zen truths kind of way so as to drive traffic towards Mr Siver's site and the fact that he links to his book one of his comments below in this thread only serves to strengthen my belief in this respect. I would welcome any comments if anyone else has felt the same way or am I being in my own way ungenerous of Mr. Siver's motives. I don't know the guy and have no axe to grind and maybe I'm being too cynical but if someone wants to preach to such a wide audience I expect the bar to be set a little higher, that's all.