Superpowers

[TheGreatErenan]

RE: Mind reading:

The usual pessimistic response I hear to this idea is that it would be depressing because you'd learn what people really think of you, which presumably, as the theory goes, is more negative than you think, and you wouldn't be able to handle it. We censor our true opinions to protect each other's feelings, etc.

However, I personally believe that if you could read minds you'd be surprised to learn that people generally think about you a lot less often than you think they do. You'd be very surprised to learn that people are a lot more like yourself than you think they are. You'd be very, very surprised to learn that people are a million times more interesting and complicated than you gave them credit for without knowing what's going on inside their heads.

I think an important bullet point for this one is being able to turn it on and off at will.