
We like impostor stories because we’re afraid we’re impostors (2016) - happy-go-lucky
http://m.nautil.us/issue/42/Fakes/catch-us-if-you-can
======
empath75
From one of the imposter's wiki pages, some sage advice on office politics:

>(Demara)'... had come to two beliefs. One was that in any organization there
is always a lot of loose, unused power lying about which can be picked up
without alienating anyone. The second rule is, if you want power and want to
expand, never encroach on anyone else's domain; open up new ones...'

>Demara referred to it as 'expanding into the power vacuum,' and described as
such; 'if you come into a new situation (there's a nice word for it) don't
join some other professor's committee and try to make your mark by moving up
in that committee. You'll, one, have a long haul and two, make an enemy.'
Demara's technique was to find his own committee. 'That way there's no
competition, no past standards to measure you by. How can anyone tell you
aren't running a top outfit? And then there's no past laws or rules or
precedents to hold you down or limit you. Make your own rules and
interpretations. Nothing like it. Remember it, expand into the power
vacuum!'[7]

------
sametmax
But we are imposters. Nobody gives you a manual on how to handle work,
children, people, sex, money, life in general. You are suppose to figure it
out on yourself, and everybody act like the others know what they are doing.
We are literally faking it until we make it for the most basic things in life.

~~~
dcw303
There's this joke on Arrested Development where Lucille Bluthe complains
there's (paraphrasing) no manual on raising children. They then cut to an
Amazon search revealing hundreds of search results for books on "Raising
Children".

While this is excellent snark and a great witty rejoinder to internet
arguments, there is something underlying which I think is useful: Figuring it
out yourself is commendable, but no-one's going to mind if you look for some
expert advice from time to time.

~~~
angry-hacker
But then again who is an expert in raising children? The problem is what works
with some children doesn't work with others. Heck, even some children from
horrible families become smart and good citizens of the world. The problem
with raising children is no one really knows why! First hand experience.

~~~
basseq
There are a lot of experts in raising children. No one is an expert in _your_
child, particularly when combined with _your_ priorities, morals, family
history, etc. If anything, it's a curation challenge: given the excess of good
advice, books, experts, friends, parents, intuition, etc.—you have to wade
through all that to find something that works for you and gets the results you
want.

------
Namrog84
I think this also touches on a 80/20 type scenario. For many professionals
that take serious time and experience to have achieved. Anyone could probably
have done 80% of their job with minimal training. It's the smaller less common
cases that matter and make it up.

It's easy to be a general when your winning. Perhaps there are no wrong moves.
But to be one on losing side and turn it around requires I think a special
type of person or experience.

It reminds me of a 1990s movie where some rich people make a successful and
non successful person switch places and prove many things are a matter of
circumstances more than most.

But then again watching recently The Most hated woman in America, reminds us
how much an individual can pioneer something.

~~~
rahimnathwani
"It reminds me of a 1990s movie..."

Maybe you mean Trading Places (1983) with Eddie Murphy.

The title has two meanings:

\- 'Trading' as in stock trading

\- 'Trading places' as in 'swapping places'

I didn't notice the second meaning at the time, as the phrase 'trade places'
isn't common in the UK.

~~~
lostboys67
Really the second meaning Is obvious in uk English and is used in the UK
regularly.

~~~
rahimnathwani
I don't recall it being common back when I first saw the movie, maybe 1985 or
1986.

~~~
lostboys67
Its quite common to say I wouldn't want trade places with him.

------
DubiousPusher
I am beginning to find almost nothing more intellectually irritating than
articles like this which basically say, here's some poorly studied pop
sociology. It explains why people like X.

I have a much simpler reason people enjoy these stories. We love these stories
because they roll up a handful of narrative features humans love.

Suspense: Good stories need stakes. Imposters, are constantly in danger of
being found out. Thus very high stakes are ever present throughout imposter
narratives. Constant presentation of high stakes results in suspense

Novelty: A good fake must be clever, the unclever ones don't last. So there is
always some new tricks a con has to teach us. Don't believe me? MacGiver was a
hit TV show and the only thing it had going for it was each episode had a
couple moments of great novelty.

Underdogism: The con man is going up against all of society. Every
institution, socal group and personal relation has cause to uncover the faker
and thus, in the game of keeping his/her secret a secret the con is on a team
of one against a team of everyone else.

As to why humans actually like imposter characters? Because humans like or at
least empathize with any character whose story they become involved with.
Humans will literally empathize with a box if you give it a bit of character
(which was good news for Been Affleck's career.)

Did you root for Walter White? Was it cause you think underneath you're a
psychopathic genius chemist ready to turn drug lord the moment you get the
personal justification to? No, it's because you saw the story from his side.
At times, when you really hated what he was doing you still kind of wanted him
to succeed.

------
allengeorge
Maybe we like impostor stories because we can _convince_ ourselves that the
reason we don't feel like we're good at something is not because we
legitimately aren't, but because we've somehow misjudged our abilities. In
other words: we're better than we are, and we can do it!

------
fauria
_A young man pretends to be the son of actor Sidney Poitier, conning his way
into wealthy Manhattan homes._ ⇨
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108149](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108149)

 _A wily Frenchman passes again and again as a long-lost orphan_ ⇨
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1966604/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1966604/)

------
andrewclunn
Hmmm, I think the term "hack" might be better. Wariness of the Dunning Kruger
effect does not an imposter make.

------
ythn
The whole premise of impostors is bogus because it implies there is such a
thing as non-impostors to begin with - a false assumption. At a certain point
everyone has to "make up" what they are doing without knowledge of "the right
way" of doing said thing.

------
snorkel
Imposter stories are fascinating. You can't help but marvel at the shear
audacity of the imposter and their inevitable demise. It also help us all
recognize imposters and their motives.

------
chme
We also like murder stories because we are afraid of being murdered.

~~~
accountface
or is it because we instinctually have some compulsion to murder?

------
Jimmy
>Deep down, psychologists suggest, impostors appeal to us because we suspect
that we are all, to some degree, faking it.

No, I've never had this fear.

------
Neliquat
You are all fake imposters.

------
jondubois
If you feel like an impostor, then you almost certainly are one. Most
impostors probably don't even realize that they're impostors. I've never felt
like an impostor, every day I have the opposite feeling.

~~~
nommm-nommm
>People who have reportedly experienced [imposter] syndrome include Academy
Award-winning actor Tom Hanks,[5] screenwriter Chuck Lorre,[6] best-selling
writer Neil Gaiman,[7] best-selling writer John Green, comedian Tommy
Cooper,[8] business leader Sheryl Sandberg, US Supreme Court justice Sonia
Sotomayor,[9] and actress Emma Watson.[10]

Do you believe that those people are all impostors?

~~~
no_wave
That list made think about what would make you feel impostor syndrome. I think
it often happens when the rewards you get are disproportionately large
compared to the amount of effort you've put in.

No doubt Tom Hanks put in a lot of effort, but fifteen years into his career
he was being paid tens of millions of dollars and getting nationally feted to
go onto a movie set and do his thing. All of those people, simply because of
the scale of the US and how the economic/legal structure operate, were at some
point just way more rich or influential than it's natural for anyone to be,
often too soon.

The people I've personally known most subject to impostor syndrome are
programmers early in their career who slacked off a bit in college who are
suddenly making close to or more than a hundred thousand dollars a year to do
something they didn't have to work all that hard to be able to do. The sort of
people who put in 70 hour weeks even in college never seem to feel it.
(Neither do cooks)

