

Imposter Syndrome - jordanlee
http://blog.42floors.com/imposter-syndrome/

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wpietri
I am entirely in favor of this article's exhortation to resilience. But this
post seems to confuse feeling inadequate (or feeling like an impostor) with
_impostor syndrome_ [1], an inability to properly recognize one's
accomplishments.

The author describes feeling like an impostor when they were, by objective
measure, behind their peers. People experiencing impostor syndrome, on the
other hand, are by objective standards doing just fine, but still have strong
feelings that they are a fraud.

It's an important distinction to me because the way you help people who are
behind is different than the way you help people with impostor syndrome.
Encouraging grit in those who are behind can be very helpful. But I don't
think telling people with impostor syndrome to be tougher is a good idea; it
just gives them another way to perceive themselves as not good enough.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome)

~~~
jghn
From the perspective of an individual it's hard to say which is the case
though. For instance, if one looks purely at the first anecdote in the article
I'd argue that either could be true. If someone is truly afflicted with
impostor syndrome they could describe things exactly that way even if they
were the best in the room (I realize the rest of the article takes a different
path, just an example).

If you were to ask me to describe my lot in life in my workplace it'd probably
sound like your first bit - I'd describe myself as being the one holding
things up, slow to understand, having the least amount of domain knowledge,
etc. Yet, I _know_ this isn't true, based on objective measures of the
feedback I receive (even beyond verbal accolades) I know I'm doing better than
"just fine". I have to work pretty hard to not picture myself as the worst
person in the room at work, even though I know that's not the case.

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pm90
I'll just post this quick note about resilience that the article talks about:
often, the picture that we see is of a lonely scientist with long white hair
thinking endlessly about a problem and the solution showing up after intense
mental effort. While this might be true for some gifted individuals, for the
rest of us mortals, perseverance comes more by just trying everyday to
understand something, and trying different approaches and stuff. In short, not
one burst of effort, but little attacks over a period of time, which slowly
whittle away at the problem. The ability to maintain you enthusiasm through
this process...that is what I personally think of as resilience. And a great
way to maintain that enthusiasm is simply...to enjoy the process of attacking
the problem as much as finding the solution :).

~~~
drcomputer
> for the rest of us mortals

Why do you begin with the assumption that you aren't gifted? Does 'gifted'
imply innate talent?

~~~
Pyret
That's what Brits call "being polite" :)

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evanwarfel
I have a hunch that impostor syndrome is also a symptom of poor /
unempathetic* management - while the implication that there might be something
'wrong' with the individual may or may not be true, I would not be surprised
if impostor syndrome could be partially accounted for by a difference in how
people process and express prosocial cues.

*unempathetic in the scientific sense; of not being able to fully comprehend how and why a person is thinking and feeling the way they do.

Also, it is probably more important to tell people that personality is
malleable and can change - this seems to be one of the root causes of
resiliency (C. Dweck et al., 2014).

~~~
jghn
Perhaps sometimes, but not always.

I've always had impostor syndrome in my professional life regardless of
management. Even in situations where there's a pretty constant stream of
affirmation it's hard to completely get rid of that feeling.

I'll agree that in workplaces where the management mood is more dour that it
didn't help at all, but it was never the root cause of it.

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erostrate
An interesting stat to keep in mind about imposter syndrome: about 2/3 of
people accepted at Stanford Business School feel they don't really deserve to
be here. Source: "The Charisma Myth", Olivia Fox Cabane.

~~~
rudimental
Interesting. For some, Dunning-Kruger is probably at play.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)

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Mz
I think this is something we need to work on at the cultural level, not just
the individual level. I gave up a national merit scholarship and quit college
to walk away from the really toxic shit that bright kids are drowning in. I am
tempted to start a blog post about that, in response to this.

~~~
Mz
FWIW, I did dash something off and submit it:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8755549](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8755549)

Logging off now. Later folks.

