Thoughts on impostor syndrome
I keep hearing about impostor syndrome (for over a decade), but it's never been anything I've had an issue with.
There are two parts involved for me:
- I'm very clear about what I know about, my skills, etc.
- I'm pretty clear about what other people know and are able to do
So for me, impostor syndrome is not really a thing.
The amusing thing is that I have totally lied about my skill level before, knowing that I could fake-it-til-I-made-it-rapidly in the situation I was in. Look, I was a teenager, and the stakes were super-low. Sometimes one needs to lie for a win-win situation. I don't want to relate that story right now, but I had a good idea that I could learn the skills rapidly enough that it didn't matter that I was lying about what I knew.
Nowadays, I do not pretend to know things I don't know. But I can point to situations where I had learned things rapidly, and others can decide whether they trust me to follow through or not.
But enough about me. Let's talk about other people and impostor syndrome.
Too many materials are trying to talk people down from feeling themselves impostors....
... because many people ARE full of shit.
Maybe we shouldn't be blowing them full of hot air? But yes, I understand the coaches and consultants who tell people what they want to hear won't get paid for telling people that they suck.
So there's angle 1: yes, you suck right now, but you don't have to suck, and I can get you up to speed, and here's how. So that's productive (if true).
But, in many cases, there's another angle: you suck at this particular thing, and maybe you should go try in some other field.
It's important feedback to get.
I remember thinking that architecture could be my career, when I was in high school. I was excellent at drafting, I loved looking at architecture, especially architectural detail, yadda yadda. Maybe? So I tried a summer program...
...and then realized, no, I would suck at architecture.
Sometimes, it's good to realize that yes, you just suck at stuff. You could get better in some cases, but in others, no. That's not your thing.
I can't tell you how to tell the difference (that's also not my thing); I'm just saying that such situations exist.
So yes, re: impostor syndrome -- some of y'all are straight-up impostors if you're faking skills that you do not have.
Yes, there are ways of assessing how well you do against other people in levels of skill/knowledge, depending on the area.
And then there is testing your knowledge against reality... and that's generally what I'm trying to do. And that is always going to fall short.
The question is by how much.
There are two parts involved for me:
- I'm very clear about what I know about, my skills, etc.
- I'm pretty clear about what other people know and are able to do
So for me, impostor syndrome is not really a thing.
The amusing thing is that I have totally lied about my skill level before, knowing that I could fake-it-til-I-made-it-rapidly in the situation I was in. Look, I was a teenager, and the stakes were super-low. Sometimes one needs to lie for a win-win situation. I don't want to relate that story right now, but I had a good idea that I could learn the skills rapidly enough that it didn't matter that I was lying about what I knew.
Nowadays, I do not pretend to know things I don't know. But I can point to situations where I had learned things rapidly, and others can decide whether they trust me to follow through or not.
But enough about me. Let's talk about other people and impostor syndrome.
Too many materials are trying to talk people down from feeling themselves impostors....
... because many people ARE full of shit.
Maybe we shouldn't be blowing them full of hot air? But yes, I understand the coaches and consultants who tell people what they want to hear won't get paid for telling people that they suck.
So there's angle 1: yes, you suck right now, but you don't have to suck, and I can get you up to speed, and here's how. So that's productive (if true).
But, in many cases, there's another angle: you suck at this particular thing, and maybe you should go try in some other field.
It's important feedback to get.
I remember thinking that architecture could be my career, when I was in high school. I was excellent at drafting, I loved looking at architecture, especially architectural detail, yadda yadda. Maybe? So I tried a summer program...
...and then realized, no, I would suck at architecture.
Sometimes, it's good to realize that yes, you just suck at stuff. You could get better in some cases, but in others, no. That's not your thing.
I can't tell you how to tell the difference (that's also not my thing); I'm just saying that such situations exist.
So yes, re: impostor syndrome -- some of y'all are straight-up impostors if you're faking skills that you do not have.
Yes, there are ways of assessing how well you do against other people in levels of skill/knowledge, depending on the area.
And then there is testing your knowledge against reality... and that's generally what I'm trying to do. And that is always going to fall short.
The question is by how much.