
The Gifted Adult: Self-Knowledge and Self-Esteem - girk
http://www.stephanietolan.com/self-knowledge.htm
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izaidi
I'm sure the author knows what she's talking about and to some extent I agree
with her, but humbleness is a useful quality too, in gifted people especially.
Being skeptical about your own innate gifts makes you work harder in applying
them, which elevates the quality of what you produce. When you start to
believe you're better than "normal" people and you can do no wrong thanks to
your awesome superpowers, that's usually when the wheels come off the wagon.

Low self-esteem is a drag but I often produce my best work when I feel like
I'm a fraud and I have to convince myself that I'm not.

~~~
brentr
The more you learn, the more you begin to realize how little you know.

Understanding something deeply enough to explain it to others yet never having
contributed something unique to the field does not make you a fraud, it makes
you someone who understands something deeply.

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girk
I'm still relatively new here, so I'm not sure if it's common to comment on
one's own submission.

After reading the article about the 10-year-old kid, Moshe, and the essay
Danielle Fong wrote in response, I wanted to share this essay by Stephanie S.
Tolan with you all, because it largely addresses the "imposter's syndrome"
that Danielle mentioned.

This article was enormously influential in my life, and I hope that you guys
will appreciate it as well.

~~~
Kaizyn
As long as your comments contribute to the discussion about your submission,
the community here is pretty reasonable. Also, they seem to be pretty good
about downmodding comments that are unreasonable or otherwise unhelpful - so
if you 'step out of line' someone is always happy to let you know.

~~~
keating
I nearly spit out my pacifier and fell out of my high chair when I saw PG
modded below zero several times in one thread -- about _Arc_ of all things.

It seems to be seasonal. Around YC application deadlines, even his offhand
comments get praised as fonts of celestial wisdom.

So the constituency of the community here tends to whip around randomly like a
man in a nude suit riding a dangling firehose, spraying mud and rocks
everywhere.

~~~
run4yourlives
Yes, all bets are off when it comes to PG here. He has way too many fans that
will mod him high simply because it says "by pg".

That being said though, the site is pretty consistent for every other user,
although as it grows I've certainly noticed a relaxing in what is considered
"off topic".

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spydez
So... do I have a low self-esteem because I'm 'gifted', or is it due to some
other factors?

~~~
swombat
Nah, you just suck. It's all the others who are gifted ;-)

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someperson
Does anyone else find it hard to read the text against the (yuck) background
texture?

~~~
andyking
Use Opera and stick it in "User Mode". Voila, no nasty backgrounds or hideous
fonts!

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swombat
Brilliant article. Thank you very much for posting it. Without excessive
arrogance, I've often had this impostor syndrome, though I didn't have a name
for it, as have some of my friends. It's heartening to see this is quite
common amongst "gifted" people :-)

Daniel

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daniel-cussen
I remember reading that gifted kids who got tracked ended up being happy,
functioning adults. Also, that child prodigies turned out all right for the
most part (Bobby Fischer and child actors notwithstanding). But I can't find
the sources.

