
Crushing the Impostor Syndrome - ohjeez
http://www.cyclonelife.net/2013/07/crushing-the-impostor-syndrome/
======
Domenic_S
I can relate to this. I wonder if forums like HN exacerbate it -- here,
_someone_ is always an expert on whatever you're talking about, just by the
sheer volume of folks who come here. So it sometimes seems like everyone is a
published expert with a sweet funded startup using Haskell and Go and
algorithms I can't comprehend, fending off offers from Google and Facebook.

It's easy to forget that there are a lot of programmers diddling with
enterprise java and php on a day to day basis, not doing anything particularly
mind-blowing, just dutifully closing their tickets.

~~~
typicalrunt
This. And we also do it to ourselves when looking for work, exacerbating the
problem and pushing onto future IT personnel. Just look at the job
descriptions for most IT jobs out there and you'll see that IT personnel are
expected to know way too much, when really you just need the fundamentals
(everything else can be learned just-in-time). I've written a much longer
answer detailing a specific job description that helps flare up my imposter
syndrome: [http://typicalrunt.me/2013/07/29/a-response-to-crushing-
the-...](http://typicalrunt.me/2013/07/29/a-response-to-crushing-the-imposter-
syndrome/)

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krrrh
This doesn't come up in the article, but everyone who has talked to me about
their imposter syndrome has been a woman. All of quotes selected by the
(female) author are also from women. I've found it really frustrating how much
learned self-doubt some of the most talented and intelligent people I know
(who happen to be women) seem to struggle with. I think this shows how
important successful female role models are for young women, especially in
male-dominated fields like business and programming. edit: fixed typos

~~~
Domenic_S
Just spitballing here, but in my experience guys tend to not open up about
their imposter syndrome, perhaps because it shows weakness.

~~~
efnx
That could be true. I know I have a pretty heavy case of imposter syndrome,
but in times of my own egomania I like to think that it's actually just the
other side of the Dunning-Kruger effect. As long as it isn't debilitatingly
severe, imposter syndrome seems more like the trademark of a humble man (or
woman). What's wrong with that?

~~~
britta
Humility is great, but when people call something a "syndrome" (a word usually
associated with disorders/diseases), they usually mean that the thing is
interfering with your life - humility taken too far, to a degree that is
making you feel worse and causing problems for you.

Impostor syndrome can mean that you have difficulty taking pride in your work
(since all you can see are the problems with it), which makes it difficult to
share your knowledge - which isn't good for other people who might want to
know about it and learn from it, and isn't good for your reputation and career
growth.

Impostor syndrome can also mean that it's hard for you to ask questions (and
admit that you don't know something!), since you're worried that you don't
know as much as you should, which makes your work harder.

Not taking pride in your work and not asking questions also means that you're
not really being the best role model for people looking up to you - your
coworkers, people who work for you, volunteers who help with your project,
etc.

(This is based on what I learned from the impostor syndrome presentation
described at [http://adainitiative.org/2013/06/kicking-impostor-
syndrome-i...](http://adainitiative.org/2013/06/kicking-impostor-syndrome-in-
the-head-lessons-from-adacamp-dc-and-sf/) .)

------
britta
For anyone who suspects they might have a bit of impostor syndrome, here are
more resources for figuring out how to identify it and deal with it:
[http://adainitiative.org/2013/06/kicking-impostor-
syndrome-i...](http://adainitiative.org/2013/06/kicking-impostor-syndrome-in-
the-head-lessons-from-adacamp-dc-and-sf/) (a video and transcript of a talk
and an exercise). Here are also the slides:
[http://www.slideshare.net/dreamwidth/kicking-impostor-
syndro...](http://www.slideshare.net/dreamwidth/kicking-impostor-syndrome-in-
the-head)

I went to a presentation of this talk at OSCON last week, and there was a big
audience of both men and women of various ages and backgrounds. I'm pretty
convinced that educating people about impostor syndrome is important to a
happier, more diverse, and more productive tech community; it's holding too
many of us back.

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vishaldpatel
I feel my most satisfied when I pull off things that impress me. Not others -
sometimes others get easily impressed. If I go on too long without doing
anything that I can pat myself on the back with then I start feeling like an
imposter... just buying time before someone figures out that I'm a fake.

------
soup10
Imposter syndrome is our natural social/emotional protection against
'knowitall' syndrome where you speak and act confidently when you are
unqualified and mislead people. The ability to speak and act confidently is a
learned social skill, normally you are supposed to learn it by peers
validating/respecting you/you respecting yourself. But the process can be
shortcut by imitation and 'faking it till you make it'(e.g. The type of
confidence sales people tend to have doesn't run as deep imo)

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drpgq
I think a lot of happiness in life depends on having realistic expectations.
Sometimes you need to look around and realistically assess your co-workers.
Are they all great? Are they all great all the time? Do they have some flaws?
There aren't many perfect people and one shouldn't hold themselves to that
standard. Tough to do.

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MitziMoto
I tend to bounce back and forth between "Impostor syndrome" and
"Dunning–Kruger effect". I guess that makes me about average?

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crb002
How much money is Iowa State University blowing on this blog themed
advertising scheme?

~~~
crb002
[http://whois.net/whois/cyclonelife.net](http://whois.net/whois/cyclonelife.net)

------
Dewie
It's also a common meme to believe in "10X programmers", and it's things like
that that makes me the most insecure. I am content with not being the best at
what I do for a living (in the future - I'm a student), I might even be
content with being very average at what I do. But I don't want to be average
if that means to be a "1X programmer" who's paycheck and productivity is for
the most part subsidized by the 10X programmers, either by them being on my
team or them being halfway across the world as contributors to libraries and
what have you.

Well, we're all standing on the shoulders of giants, so that last part might
be framed very pessimistically. But I just don't want to be programmer that
either brings a comparatively little to the table or even a net negative of
contribution on bad days, who _has_ to have some mythical 10X programmer in my
vicinity (on, say, my team) in order for me to get anything remotely useful
done.

It's only partly about self-esteem: if I don't have a talent for this gig, I
want to find out about that so that I can get out gracefully. So it's not just
a question of thinking positive and getting better self-esteem, it's also a
question that has practical implications.

~~~
Spearchucker
I work for an organisation who's business model depends on users completing a
very long and complex legal form.

The form is paper-based, because it requires a number of signatures to make it
legally binding. They brought in a consultancy to move the whole thing online.
They've been at it for a year and a half. I started wondering what it was
that's so difficult.

The consultancy created a form in which fields, guidance and rules were hard-
coded. Part of what took them 18+ months is that the client kept making
changes to form guidance.

I got myself a printed version of the form and used it to create a form-
builder, which simply generates HTML. A non-technical business admin can
change field sequences, guidance, and business rules using a simple UI, and
publish those in real time. That took just 3 days.

When I demonstrated my proof of concept I got those 10x comments. Guess what.
I'm a festering pile of shit as a programmer. But I've been doing this for 20
years, and have solved this little problem many times in those 20 years. I
didn't write much code. I just copied and pasted stuff I had lying around,
renamed some entities and methods, and put it onto a server.

It really is just experience.

~~~
mooreds
I think that having the context to recognize a problem and solve it at a meta
level means, almost by definition, that you aren't a "festering pile of shit
as a programmer".

Programming isn't just about writing great code, it's about solving problems.
Sure, one problem to solve is having code be extensible/maintainable, but it
isn't the only one.

I don't care what shiny new code is written with the latest framework; if it
doesn't solve a business problem, it's bad code.

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_sabe_
Maybe I'm an exception then, because I can't relate at all to this. I've got
enough interesting thoughts inside my head that takes up most of my
concentration, so I would not have time to care about what others do and
don't.

