system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How can speed be relative but still have a maximum? (the speed of light)

I've been told two things:

a) All speed is relative, meaning there is no universal "Resting speed". You can only measure the speed of an object relative to another object.

b) Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light

These seem like incompatible statements because this speed limit imposed by the speed of light would have to be a relative speed to something else. As there are many "something else"s in the universe, would I not be able to travel the speed of light relative to any of them?

Can somebody channel Carl Sagan for a moment and simplify this for me?
gpt
To understand this, you have to mostly ignore your intuitions about how motion works.

Relative to you, nothing can be moving faster than the speed of light. Wherever you are, and however fast you think you're moving, nothing you can ever observe will be going faster than the speed of light compared to you.

It works out that way because time passes differently for objects moving relative to each other. Also distances get smaller the faster you are moving relative to something else. 

For example if you whizzed past Earth at very high speeds (relative to Earth), it would look squashed to you. Everything happening in the earth would also be in slow motion from your point of view.