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Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

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Re: Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

#311

Post by knightofmars »

alexquez wrote: post #231
knightofmars wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> dove deep into the wrong technology (Java Swing :|) For someone, such as yourself, who has been in software for 14 years I'm surprised that you'd write these words. Most people I've met with your years of experience realize there isn't a "wrong technology" there is a "right technology for the problem" and a "right way to use a specific technology". I suspect you're applying hindsight bias in thinking, "I could have…

Pointing out the tech I used at the time is a bit of a red herring for the argument I was making. The point I should have made was that I focused on the technology instead of the fundamentals of software. I was obsessed with learning the tech that that existed at the time instead of learning how to craft software in general with the least amount of complexity. I wrote a website that got 10 visits a month with Spring…

Ah, that makes sense given the context. Thanks for the additional input!

Re: Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

#312

Post by vitaflo »

sus_007 wrote: post #229
cyberferret wrote: post #41

My semi-cynical, 35+ years in the industry advice? Avoid blogs, forums, podcasts, social media pages, news sites that only focus on the 1% of startups that make it 'big' seemingly overnight. Go out and talk to fellow entrepreneurs, hackers, company founders and people in the industry, and you will quickly find out that everyone , and I mean EVERYONE goes through a heartless grind and struggle to get things done or to…

I totally agree with your statement, but how can one compensate for the fear of missing out of new technologies, interesting discussions among interesting people sharing their insights to the problem in hand, like you're doing with us at the moment. That's the only reason I check Hacker News, or some Subreddits multiple times a day, so that I won't miss that one non-upvoted post which could have proven significant to…

FOMO is a trap. You're looking for a needle in a haystack, but instead you should let someone else bring the needle to you.

If something is worth your time, someone you know and trust will bring it up to you. The more people you talk to and interact with, the more likely you are to be offered up information that is actually significant to you. It is also more likely to have a real impact because human interaction is more "sticky" than a simple website post.

What you're doing now is akin to throwing a Bubble sort at the problem. It's slow, inefficient and a waste of time.

Re: Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

#313

Post by dozzie »

ams6110 wrote: post #183
alexquez wrote: post #158

I've been in software for 14 years without a computer science degree and carry a chip on my shoulder because I missed out on algorithms and compilers in school. I'm mostly self-taught and have had the opportunity to run a SAAS company for six years now (CodePen). I'm winging it like many other people in our industry. I wish I'd had two things to when I started my career. 1. A right of passage that endorsed my skills…

I have a degree but honestly can't say I've ever really used anything from algorithms or compilers courses on the job. Nobody (meaning, very few people doing mainstream startup/SaaS development) writes fundamental algorithms, you use libraries and classes from the language you're working in. Most people don't work in compiled languages anymore, and if they do, they don't write their own compilers. Maybe understanding…

> Nobody [...] writes fundamental algorithms, you use libraries and classes from the language you're working in. Most people don't work in compiled languages anymore, and if they do, they don't write their own compilers.

This is sad thing to say. I'm a sysadmin, and I'm regularly using the knowledge about algorithms to assess which data structure to use in my programs, I've written recently a binary search function (if we're talking about fundamentals), more than once I needed to write a priority queue that allows fast(er than O(n)) updates to random elements, and I assure you that I'm very happy that I took the compilers course, because I've written several parsers (one more interesting was a translator from a simple query language to SQL, to easily extract data from inventory database). And I am a sysadmin, I'm not supposed to write that much. What went wrong?

Re: Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

#314

Post by bluejekyll »

MR4D wrote: post #308

I’ve read thru a bunch of the comments (many of which echo my own thoughts on my career), and have a thought: Why is computer programming taught in universities? Seriously. There are many people who learned some things but not what they would have wanted to learn when they look back on their life. I wonder why programming can’t be like welding [1]. There are many different types of welders, from the person welding a…

Programmers are not just welders, or should not be equated to welders. Welders have a blueprint, generally, to work from. There is someone who’s had to design how to form the thing being welded.

Software engineers are constantly asked to design and build the things they work on. It’s not a straightforward process of sticking two things together, based on some predefined blueprint.

We make the blueprints while we code. On top of that, systems as they come together sometimes show problems that need fixes, because of the scale of the system. Then we need to completely redesign for the newer bigger problem.

Using the welding analogue, sometimes you start building a BBQ, and end up making a bicycle or a rocketship.

Re: Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

#315

Post by MR4D »

bluejekyll wrote: post #314
MR4D wrote: post #308

I’ve read thru a bunch of the comments (many of which echo my own thoughts on my career), and have a thought: Why is computer programming taught in universities? Seriously. There are many people who learned some things but not what they would have wanted to learn when they look back on their life. I wonder why programming can’t be like welding [1]. There are many different types of welders, from the person welding a…

Programmers are not just welders, or should not be equated to welders. Welders have a blueprint, generally, to work from. There is someone who’s had to design how to form the thing being welded. Software engineers are constantly asked to design and build the things they work on. It’s not a straightforward process of sticking two things together, based on some predefined blueprint. We make the blueprints while we code…

Good clarification. Programmers are like welders. Architects aren’t. They may be welders or programmers, but they lay out the structure and define how it connects to the world.

Programming is different (way different) than architecture. In my mind, and part of the reason for the post is that we are expecting programmers to be architects. We shouldn’t. It’s a different discipline.

Re: Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

#317

Post by RivieraKid »

Weird, this seems so common. I would guess that most of the people who feel like frauds, actually are to some extent.

The impostor syndrome concept is so popular because people want to believe it. It provides a simple black-and-white answer: I deserve my success, the unpleasant emotions in the back of my head are just the result of impostor syndrome, totally normal. But in fact, success is usually the result of both ability and luck. Successful people have above-average ability and luck. So from the point of view of a typical successful person, most equally-able peers are less successful.

Re: Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

#318

Post by simonswords82 »

The fix for imposter syndrome is to stop comparing one's self to others.

The definition of an imposter is: "a person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others, especially for fraudulent gain."

So, if you feel you're an imposter, it's only because you're comparing yourself to others who you feel are either doing it better than you in their respective roles, or perhaps worse still you fear they could do your job better than you.

In my experience, as a man with a semi successful software business and no formal education in the industry - the only thing that has kept me from falling under the imposter syndrome bus is just working harder and ignoring others around me.

I love this snippet I saved from a Reddit post some years ago, I come back to it from time to time when I've demotivated myself - typically by comparing myself to others more "successful" than me:

--

You do not make progress in climbing a "mountain" (neither real or ethereal) by standing around gawking and whining about how much further or faster others are climbing it.

You make progress climbing by putting one foot in front of the other, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day.

You gauge your progress ONLY and SOLELY on how much further up that mountain you are NOW than you were a minute, hour or day ago.

As you continue to climb, you use the distance you have recently come to motivate yourself to climb further and faster than YOU have done in the past.

You only need worry about others when they are directly in your way and preventing you from making forward progress -- and even then it is best to simply sidestep them and continue on your journey up.

When you reach some higher plateau, if you then want to take a breather and greet the fellow climbers that have reached a similar plateau, that is fine, but it does not matter if they have reached it faster or slower, before or even after you -- the journey further upward for everyone is in the future, not the past.

--

P.S. I killed all my social media except for Linked In - that helped a bunch too.

Re: Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

#319

Post by castlecrasher2 »

js8 wrote: post #16

I might have an impostor syndrome at work. And I am somewhat anxious about it. And I feel like it decreases my performance by quite a bit. And luckily, my managers understand it and are very supportive of me. However, I have a question (and this is going meta). Maybe my managers are too understanding about it. Sometimes I wish they give me a harder time, and feel like I don't get reprimanded for failure enough and st…

> Maybe we are all impostors

If you start reading management books you'll see that this is true. Most of them talk about how they're terrified of being found out but that this is okay, you'll grow into your role.

Re: Is there a fix for impostor syndrome?

#320

Post by chairmankaga »

alexquez wrote: post #158

I've been in software for 14 years without a computer science degree and carry a chip on my shoulder because I missed out on algorithms and compilers in school. I'm mostly self-taught and have had the opportunity to run a SAAS company for six years now (CodePen). I'm winging it like many other people in our industry. I wish I'd had two things to when I started my career. 1. A right of passage that endorsed my skills…

How would you find such a mentor?

So far every job I've joined since finishing school in 2012 I've been the "smartest person in the room". It's been incredibly frustrating to not have peers to learn from technically.

It was so bad that I left my city (Recruiters and the jobs felt very toxic to me) and became an expat, started self learning what I wanted until I could consult enough to sustain myself.

Now I joined a large company for a large project in asia and I'm STILL missing people I can learn from.

I'm reaching my 30's, and have only worked at small to medium places with near zero mentorship.

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