Just get an SSL certificate for your site, you will instantly feel a lot more legit!
Why I feel like a fraud
71–78 of 78 posts
Re: Why I feel like a fraud
#72I often feel this way too. The hardest is when you are up in front of a room of people who are there to see you because you are an "expert". Every misstatement or generalization feels like a punch in the face as soon as it leaves the lips. Even worse, sometimes there's a person in the crowd who takes pleasure in calling out the "expert". Even after days of research and practice for a single hour long talk this person…
You can tell them that you will discuss it after the meeting or just say you don't know. Most people will laugh when you say you don't know and think you are cool.
Re: Why I feel like a fraud
#73There is no "typical entrepreneur". If you look at wall street traders, Fortune 500 CEO's and other populations that have been through intense selection processes you'll find very homogeneous populations. If you look at entrepreneurs, you'll find confident people, anxious people, short people, tall people, thin people, fat people -- all kinds of people. That's because entrepreneurs select themselves rather than being…
Well, I think it's fair to say all entrepreneurs are persistent, but that's about it.
Specifically, successful entrepreneurs are persistent.
Re: Why I feel like a fraud
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm there too. I often measure myself against the fact that Einstein invented the theory of relativity in his early 20s. Meanwhile, I'm 30 now with a Masters degree in CS that I feel is worthless, writing what amounts to string concatenating programs all day at work. The only thing that keeps me sane, really, is a combination of doing iphone development after hours and playing with arduino. It also helps that I have…
+1 on the recognition of having a supportive spouse - this is a huge factor in my motivation and lack of depression. I know what you mean about comparing yourself to someone accomplished. I keep this as a google document for when I need a reminder to keep going: A list of Abraham Lincoln’s Failures: - Lost job, 1832 - Defeated for legislature, 1832 - Failed in business, 1833 - Elected to legislature, 1834 - Sweethear…
Labeling the death of his sweetheart as one of his failures seems a bit harsh.
Re: Why I feel like a fraud
#75Re: Why I feel like a fraud
#76There is no "typical entrepreneur". If you look at wall street traders, Fortune 500 CEO's and other populations that have been through intense selection processes you'll find very homogeneous populations. If you look at entrepreneurs, you'll find confident people, anxious people, short people, tall people, thin people, fat people -- all kinds of people. That's because entrepreneurs select themselves rather than being…
Well, I think it's fair to say all entrepreneurs are persistent, but that's about it.
I was talking with a professor about my work on the bus last night and mentioned that having faith in what I'm doing is what makes me possible to do it.
He shared that he's a born-again Christian and he's thought about faith is important in what he does, since you've never got any guarantee that a research project is going to be successful.
I'm a pagan, so I like the Japanese word "Haruhi" which means "full of spirit." (It's been popularized in the U.S. by a post-modern recent anime which I can't decide if I like or not.) But it's an important thing. For the idea I'm working on, I find that being "Haruhi" makes me invincible... I used to be a terribly anxious person but I believe in what I'm doing so much that nothing bothers me.
Quite funny, my business plan from the very beginning assumed that the system I was building would soon become more than the sum of it's parts, but I was quite amazed to see it happen... For me it's a miracle.
Re: Why I feel like a fraud
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm there too. I often measure myself against the fact that Einstein invented the theory of relativity in his early 20s. Meanwhile, I'm 30 now with a Masters degree in CS that I feel is worthless, writing what amounts to string concatenating programs all day at work. The only thing that keeps me sane, really, is a combination of doing iphone development after hours and playing with arduino. It also helps that I have…
+1 on the recognition of having a supportive spouse - this is a huge factor in my motivation and lack of depression. I know what you mean about comparing yourself to someone accomplished. I keep this as a google document for when I need a reminder to keep going: A list of Abraham Lincoln’s Failures: - Lost job, 1832 - Defeated for legislature, 1832 - Failed in business, 1833 - Elected to legislature, 1834 - Sweethear…
I think Lincoln's case doesn't support the "good to have supportive spouse" idea but rather (1) persist, and (2) talent/genius wins out in the end, given the right context and times that let it manifest and become critical. Heck, even without much talent, persistance is helpful.
Re: Why I feel like a fraud
#78"First you get your Bachelor's degree, and you think you know everything." "Then, you get your Master's, and you realize you don't know anything." "Then you get your Doctorate, and you find out that nobody knows anything."
> Then you get your Doctorate, and you find out that nobody knows anything. Took me about 3 months to figure out why the java class I was taking was so screwed up. The professor had never seen Object Oriented Programming (or Java) before. He was staying one chapter ahead of the class and picking assignments that required his domain expertise to complete. As annoying as it was to find out, I still learned a useful bit…
I used to work at a company that had its own teaching academy.
They once sent out a sectionwide e-mail announcing a new mobile app development course. One of my coworkers responded with a "thanks, I need that badly!" to which, amusingly, he was told that he was to be the teacher!.
Edit: I have found that "The best way to learn is to teach" (attributed to Frank Oppenheimer) is quite true.