
The Fallacy of Imposter Syndrome - NetOpWibby
https://thewebb.blog/thoughts/2018/the-fallacy-of-imposter-syndrome
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ideonexus
Fifteen years ago, I suffered from impostor syndrome. It made me defensive
whenever someone criticized me because I thought that they were exposing my
ignorance--exposing me as an impostor. I would bristle when other developers
would say, "Wait? You don't know about [thing]?" Why didn't I know about
[thing]???

After 25 years of coding I know enough about the field to know that no one
knows it all. When someone is surprised that I don't know something, I smile
to myself that they think the entire scope of software development is
something anyone could know in its entirety (but I keep this to myself). When
someone is defensive about their code or what they know, I now assume they are
suffering from impostor syndrome and try to emphasize my own human failings in
hopes they will accept their own.

The best defense against impostor syndrome is humility. Part of being humble
is being self-effacing with my peers. I love to tell my coworkers every
boneheaded mistake I make. I've seen this work wonders for their confidence to
know the lead developer regularly misses key requirements, has to go back and
completely refactor his poorly-coded solutions, or releases stupefying bugs
into production. Software is hard. It's important to always remember that and
have sympathy for everyone we work with.

My favorite motto (borrowed from multiple sources) is, "I reserve the right to
be smarter today than I was yesterday."

Edit: Grammar.

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kylec
Claiming you have "imposter syndrome" seems to be a popular way to convey
modesty or self deprecation. I suspect that many people that claim to have it
actually don't.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
Think about it like this....

A surgeon might go to school for up to 12 years to acquire all there advanced
knowledge.

It seems like after all that time, there jobs should be so complicated that it
would be beyond the understanding of a layperson. But when I go to the doctor
I expect that person to be able to explain what is wrong with me, and what
they are going to do to fix it. So even with 12 years of education, there
isn't REALLY a significant barrier of understanding between the average adult
an the doctor.

Now take a I.T. worker who has a 6 month degree from a technical college. He
may be able to set up an intranet for the office. But could he explain the
difference between a local network, and the wider internet, how the data is
processed, and what a webpage is made of, in a way that a layperson could
really understand without prior knowledge?

Programming quickly takes people into the realm where intuitive knowledge is
of little help. Its very easy to get lost, and even to a programmer who does
PHP, certain things with JavaScript can feel like magic.

What I'm saying is that it is a rough environment, and feeling Impostor
Syndrome is probably really common, and should be expected in this field. I
think in many ways it gets worse the more advanced you become in a specific
domain.

~~~
beagle3
> So even with 12 years of education, there isn't REALLY a significant barrier
> of understanding between the average adult an the doctor.

I apologize for saying this, but this kind of statement smells of Dunning-
Kruger. You only feel that way because the doctor works hard to make things
understandable for you, and a significant part of his training is in the
direction.

How much do you think the average adult would understand when the doctor says
something like "I suspect a B-cell mediated paraneoplastic disease (not a
T-cell one, mind you), possibly affecting your NMDR receptors? If that's the
case, surely a 5-methyl perdnisolone (or maybe a 6-methyl one) will provide
some help by modulating antibody generation. An intravenous human normal
immunoglobulin is also likely to help in this modulation."?

Instead, the doctor is likely to say "You have an autoimmune disease. We have
a cheap-with-side-effects treatment, and an expensive-with-less-but-possibly-
not-covered-your-insurance one". Just like the IT guy would say "one works
within the office, one works across the world, and there's a gateway between
them".

~~~
kthejoker2
I think your example actually proves the point.

Everything your doctor said has been known and codified in medicine for close
to 100 years. So while the specific definitions may be missed, it's still
followable for a lay person, because it's connected to concepts they get
(cell, disease, antibody, intravenous, maybe even receptors.) If you asked an
average adult to translate that sentence, I bet it would come close to your
doctor translation, minus the side commentary on costs. Certainly a doctor in
another field, say, a podiatrist or even just a first year resident, can
follow along with what the immunologist said.

Whereas software is such a vast body (pun intended?) That nothing translates.
DevOps interns, analytics architects, experience designers, and black hats
have entire worlds of jargon to decode. But people pretend all the time it's
all just software and if you're good at Angular you'll be good at embedded
computing or if you're good at data modeling you can pick up machine learning.

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gremlinsinc
I definitely have it, or else I wouldn't be a USA freelancer w/ 5+ years php
experience (laravel + vue = current stack), but only charge $40 an hour as a
freelancer...

See, I KNOW I have it, I KNOW I'm worth more, but when I get into negotiations
on rates, I freeze up and low ball to get the client rather than just spit out
$100/hour take it or leave it...

I'm in therapy for anxiety/depression though and focus/concentration issues,
(just started last week), I'm hopeful some of this might be worked through and
I can find some quality clients that will pay industry standards for freelance
work..or I'll start a Saas that has MRR and I won't need to worry about it.

~~~
throwawaymath
Without trying to trivialize your reasons for going to therapy: I don't think
you have imposter syndrome. If you do, something seems incongruent here.

It sounds to me as though you struggle with negotiation due to a lack of
confidence. That's not ideal but it can be remedied, and it's a different
(better, in my opinion) issue to have. On the other hand I don't really think
you can have imposter syndrome while being self-aware about having it.
Imposter syndrome is a thought process, not a behavioral pattern.
Understanding that you're worth more than what you're charging means you're
aware you could improve in negotiation. How would you be aware that you're
worth more while also being aware that you believe that you're not worth more?

On a more practical note: I used to be a consultant. I initially struggled
with negotiation as well. My advice to you is to practice being flippant with
the numbers you provide. I know that sounds cavalier and it's easier said than
done, but it can be a very empowering (albeit nerve-wracking) experience to
learn how to give ridiculous numbers out. You might be surprised how often
they're accepted.

~~~
gremlinsinc
The imposter part is I don't feel I'm as 'good' as that other guy who's making
100..maybe I don't know everything htey know..I'm not the best at super
complicated algorithms or math, but I can google this shit out of stack
overflow and solve 95% of all issues I've ever had. That's what kind of knocks
my confidence down a little bit.

~~~
kthejoker2
Everyone Googles and SOs. The work is too vast and varied, and the timelines
have the baked in assumption that you're not reinventing the wheel. You are
expected to accelerate through reusd and acquired knowledge.

I need someone who knows PHP syntax and knows what to Google for when they're
staring at a problem they don't know off the top of their head.

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hateNewAccounts
"Oh there's a documented psychological phenomena? Time to fix it all with
#positiveThinking ". This honestly reeks of the same bs as those who claim
depression can be cured by a walk in the woods.

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sshine
At one job I had, everyone was a PhD or a postdoc, and I hadn't completed my
BSc. They offered me 20% more than I would have asked for, and I worked
inefficiently because of problems concentrating.

I labeled myself as an impostor in this situation and eventually quit.

The article doesn't argue that impostor syndrome doesn't exist, but that the
reader shouldn't use the term. That if you frame your situation differently,
you can have a more positive outlook.

My real problem was that I had problems concentrating - a problem that I still
have to a lesser extent - but the scenario back then made it harder for me to
acknowledge this. "It's because the others are better than you." Well, duh,
maybe they were. But you're good, too, if you can concentrate.

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somethingsimple
I’m always afraid of letting me consider I have it, because I always seem to
be put in positions where I’m incompetent.

It’s been a pattern in my career so far, and I don’t know how to break it. I
join a new team, learn fast, do good work, everyone loves me. Then management
assumes that because I’m good at x, I’m also good at y. So they put me to work
on y and I fail miserably. Someone else has to come in and help me/fix it, and
now all my credibility is gone.

I try not to beat myself up about it. I consider it a management failure. My
current instance of this is management assuming that because I’m a good cider,
I’m also good at dealing with infrastructure/operations type stuff. Which is
simply not true.

I simply don’t understand their thought process.

~~~
setr
related:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle)

>people in a hierarchy tend to rise to their "level of incompetence".

>employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they
reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do
not necessarily translate to another

Note that the original text was satire, but the idea itself is quite
satisfying, and if true would explain all the bad bosses in the world.

~~~
somethingsimple
Yeah, it's something akin to the Peter Principle. Except I'm not being
promoted. I'm still in the same position, except I always get assigned to do
stuff I have no clue about, while there are a thousand other areas in the
project where I could be doing my best work. I don't understand it.

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megamindbrian2
Thank you, I hope the imposter that took over my brain pats me on the back.

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glemmaPaul
This was a nice reminder to look back positively and use it as energy to
continue to do better!

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Bendingo
Anyone who claims to have imposter syndrome most definitely does not.

People who really suffer from imposter syndrome will never tell, because they
are afraid of being found out.

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blikdak
Click bait headline

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draw_down
Worth considering that all the people you see who look so confident and with-
it (which exacerbates the impostor syndrome) are also likely freaking out on
the inside. You are not the special lonesome misunderstood soul.

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User23
And yet all of us have worked with someone who really is out of their league
and can't do the work adequately, and those people are often the most arrogant
and confident. Some get promoted to management.

There's more going on here, but the behavior can largely be predicted based on
the individual's place in the social hierarchy. People that suffer from
imposter syndrome inevitably have other characteristic traits and behaviors of
low social status.

The most striking example is the sitting US President. If anyone should suffer
from imposter syndrome, believing he isn't qualified, it's him. And yet there
is absolutely no evidence that he does, quite the opposite in fact. If I had
to guess I'd say he thinks he's one of the greatest presidents of all time.

~~~
jboy55
That there are those who can BS their way to success doesn't mean there are
others who underestimate their abilities and hide. There aren't even just
these 2 categories, if you look at those who BS, there are those who are aware
of their inadequacies and those who aren't.

If you subdivide those who are aware of their inadequacies, there are those
who just don't care and those who use the BS as a screen so they won't get
found out. Which brings us back to the start.

Understanding the motivations of an individual and understanding your own
motivations, can help you manage developers and help you self-improve.

As a manager, understanding impostor syndrome has allowed me to encourage
developers who are hiding before their hiding causes them to not report a
production issue they're afraid they'll get fired for. Its also helped me
understand when individuals need extra encouragement, so that they try to
reach out to others for help.

So just because there are counter examples, doesn't mean its not worth
understanding.

~~~
User23
I absolutely agree, I just presented two poles, I figured it was obvious it's
a continuum and that there are other dimensions as well.

Most programmers have relatively low social status, and exhibit the thought
processes and behaviors thereof. You may not think of it in those terms, and
that doesn't matter, as long as you pragmatically understand these typical
behavior and thought patterns, which it sounds like you do. For what it's
worth, the fear of ostracism you describe interfering with reporting issues is
a characteristic low status fear. High social status individuals don't fear
ostracism, they do the ostracizing.

