I dealt with many of these same situations by thinking it through. Often when I am in a new, challenging situation, I ask myself this: is there anyone dumber than I am who is succeeding in this situation?
The answer is invariably yes. That means that I can deal with it through sheer force of will and hard work. It helps knowing that.
For example, you say you are a good coder. That’s wonderful. It is something you can be proud of, and you should internalize it. Even if you can’t, I bet some of your peers who are not as good at programming as you are can do pretty well when they are talking. So that shows you it really is possible even for less competent people to excel in your situation.
As far as being uncomfortable when talking to people, what I do is practice all possible versions of the conversation before it takes place. I come up with objections that I think the people I am talking to might have, and I figure out how to answer them by simulating the situation in my mind in real time.
Given this approach, how do you avoid leaning into the Dunning-Kruger Effect? Or is the point that it's OK to sometimes as long as your expertise actually catches up?
I'd argue it's OK even if your expertise does not catch up. The world goes by without you or I being perfect. It's one thing to strive to be better, but what good does it do if you are paralyzed because you question yourself at every turn?
So true. My internal goal is to get to be better than 80% of people in my specialty. I don’t claim to be smarter than the top 5% or so. I just hold onto a work ethic, YT tutorials, and search engine skills. Most people don’t think too much about what they’re doing so you can scrape past the median just by doing that.
I’m insanely self-critical. I had to look up the Dunning-Kruger effect and believe me, it’s about the last of the (many) problems I’m likely to encounter.
My point is simply that if I see people dumber than I am succeeding in something I’m trying, then I know there’s a path to success for me. Knowing that I can exchange work and time for success is my security blanket.
The answer is invariably yes. That means that I can deal with it through sheer force of will and hard work. It helps knowing that.
For example, you say you are a good coder. That’s wonderful. It is something you can be proud of, and you should internalize it. Even if you can’t, I bet some of your peers who are not as good at programming as you are can do pretty well when they are talking. So that shows you it really is possible even for less competent people to excel in your situation.
As far as being uncomfortable when talking to people, what I do is practice all possible versions of the conversation before it takes place. I come up with objections that I think the people I am talking to might have, and I figure out how to answer them by simulating the situation in my mind in real time.