September 16, 2025
If I had to swap out the shrill, angry blast of a car horn for something else, I’d go with the quack of a 32-foot-tall duck. Picture that for a second. You’re waiting at a red light, it turns green, and instead of the usual impatient honk, you hear the deep, resonant quack of a duck the size of a building. You wouldn’t be mad, you’d laugh. You might even forget you were in a hurry.
That’s kind of the point. Car horns right now are designed for anger. They’re sharp, abrupt, and designed to get your attention fast. Necessary, sure. But they also crank up the tension on roads that are already stressful. What if instead, our horns reminded us not to take ourselves so seriously? What if they reset the mood instead of escalating it?
My kids would probably choose fart noises, which would turn every rush hour into the world’s biggest middle school bathroom joke. My wife might go with something classy and elegant, even in chaos. You? Would probably pick a laugh track, which is either brilliant or deeply unhinged depending on how you look at it.
The sound you’d choose for your horn says a lot about you. Are you practical, choosing something functional like a polite doorbell chime? Or are you chaotic, picking something that makes people question their sanity?
For me, the duck quack works because it’s impossible to ignore but also impossible to stay mad at. It disrupts the default script of driving, anger, stress, impatience, and replaces it with something a little more human: humor.
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So… if you had to replace your car horn with any sound, what would it be?
Share your answer in the comments or on social—your weird little truth might be someone else’s comfort zone.