My good friend Rudyard Kipling first described this fallacy to me in the midst of a rather cynical exhortation. “Ransom,” he said. “Never believe any man’s description of his own strengths, and only believe half of his descriptions of his own weaknesses. Self-reported values are announced based on how a man or nation would like to be perceived. The actual facts are another matter. One might float just above the other, but never the twain shall meet.”
