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Healthy Self-Doubt

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Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#61

Post by kubanczyk »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #40
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more I know, the more there is to learn... this is what causes impostor syndrome.

I always equate "impostor syndrome" to being insecure. There's a ton of stuff I don't know, and that's fine. I'm not afraid to ask "stupid" questions, and let folks know that I don't know something. Sometimes, I have no interest in knowing it, so I don't ask questions about it, and don't pretend that I know anything about it. But there's also a lot of stuff I do know. At one time, I didn't know it, and asked a questi…

Well, knowing something is not arrogance.

Stating that you know something is arrogance, unless you take precautions. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm saying the situation perfectly matches the dictionary definition of the word "arrogance".

Everyone around here surely knows that it's often sufficient to prefix the opinion with "everyone here surely knows that ". Because if you say raw "X" very confidently, people immediately assume that your full implicit message is "I cannot believe I even have to waste my precious time to explain to you nitwits that ".

Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#62

Post by [deleted] »

subliun1 wrote: post #59
kubanczyk wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 50% of people perform below average Nitpick but it's "median" not "average". > everybody has an "inner child", but most functioning adults have built layers And that's the point where I'm scratching my head. What do people even mean by that? As I observe the "inner child" in others and then apply the new theory to myself it's freaking obvious that the adult part is doing all the reading, all the predicting, all the…

> Nitpick but it's "median" not "average". “average noun 1. a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number.“

[deleted]

Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#63

Post by sokoloff »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #58
sokoloff wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t care if someone can bang out working binary tree on a whiteboard with the fluidity of Bob Ross, but I do care that people know that data structure and associated algorithms exist and could implement them given a dev environment, google, stack overflow, and a day or so.

> data structure and associated algorithms That's the thing. 99% of programming is Big Data (and windows, thereof), so everyone is on about that. I tend to write stuff that is on a much more humble scale, like device control software, or systems that are used by thousands (not millions) of people. I guess that I could say that "Any programmer should know about ring buffers," as that was a staple of my device driver s…

I agree that programmers should know about (the existence of the concept of) ring buffers, hardware handshakes, interrupts, synchronous vs asynchronous and serial vs parallel data communications, error detection/correction systems, grey codes, Karnaugh maps and logic glitching, split clock domains, etc.

If you tell me “I don’t want to know about anything that I don’t need clearly and presently to accomplish my next task”, you’ve told me something important.

Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#64

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

sokoloff wrote: post #63
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> data structure and associated algorithms That's the thing. 99% of programming is Big Data (and windows, thereof), so everyone is on about that. I tend to write stuff that is on a much more humble scale, like device control software, or systems that are used by thousands (not millions) of people. I guess that I could say that "Any programmer should know about ring buffers," as that was a staple of my device driver s…

I agree that programmers should know about (the existence of the concept of) ring buffers, hardware handshakes, interrupts, synchronous vs asynchronous and serial vs parallel data communications, error detection/correction systems, grey codes, Karnaugh maps and logic glitching, split clock domains, etc. If you tell me “I don’t want to know about anything that I don’t need clearly and presently to accomplish my next t…

> If you tell me “I don’t want to know about anything that I don’t need clearly and presently to accomplish my next task”, you’ve told me something important.

Oh, wow. I'm busted. I guess I should just sell my computer and take up turd farming.

Except...

> "I'm also constantly trying out stuff I don't already know."

That might indicate that "clearly and presently to accomplish my next task" keeps changing.

Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#65

Post by kubanczyk »

subliun1 wrote: post #59
kubanczyk wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 50% of people perform below average Nitpick but it's "median" not "average". > everybody has an "inner child", but most functioning adults have built layers And that's the point where I'm scratching my head. What do people even mean by that? As I observe the "inner child" in others and then apply the new theory to myself it's freaking obvious that the adult part is doing all the reading, all the predicting, all the…

> Nitpick but it's "median" not "average". “average noun 1. a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number.“

average

the result you get by adding two or more amounts together and dividing the total by the number of amounts

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/average

Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#66

Post by BurningFrog »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #49
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> never be afraid to ask a question, even if it sounded ignorant On the mentoring side, never make fun of someone asking a legitimate question. I give my team shit if they should know better about something but legitimate questions are taken as seriously as possible.

> should know better about something It's been my experience that this is quite subjective. For example, the standard leetcode binary tree tests. When I mention that I'm not particularly good at them, I will usually get some variant of "Well, this is basic stuff that any programmer should know." –often delivered quite condescendingly. But I've been writing ship code for over thirty years. I have a public portfolio wi…

Yeah, binary tree type interview questions are probably a good way to weed out broken employers.

Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#67

Post by the_af »

x87678r wrote: post #57
TopHand wrote: post #23

For most of my career I worked with a small group (20 to 30) group of highly educated and mostly brilliant people. I barely graduated high school. As the years passed and we all began to age, I realized that the amount of knowledge we all had obtained during our tenure was an irreplaceable resource for the company. In order to help the younger incoming people bypass this learning curve I set up a wiki where group mem…

> What I discovered was that most of these brilliant people would not share a lot of their knowledge I'm someone who has spent a lot of time training up juniors. TBH I dont have a lot of show for it. I really wish I spent my time trying to learn things myself, many of the people I've trained have much better careers than I do. I'm guessing your group of successful smart people are that way because they don't waste ti…

I hear what you're saying. Though the feeling of helping someone else is wonderful (regardless of whether you later end up with "something to show for it", job wise).

Don't you think that trying to teach someone something ends up helping you solidify your understanding, maybe even making you question what you took for granted?

Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#68

Post by twic »

kevsim wrote: post #8

To me what the author is describing as 'healthy self-doubt' doesn't sound like self-doubt to me at, but rather admitting one doesn't know everything, one needs to surround oneself with competent people, etc. If you feel you're good-to-go except there are some things you just don't know, I'd say you're not suffering much self-doubt at all.

Healthy self-skepticism might be more accurate, but it's clunky.

Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#69

Post by subliun1 »

kubanczyk wrote: post #65
subliun1 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nitpick but it's "median" not "average". “average noun 1. a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number.“

average the result you get by adding two or more amounts together and dividing the total by the number of amounts https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/average

email oxford and maybe they’ll fix their definition for you

Re: Healthy Self-Doubt

#70

Post by dilandau »

eplanit wrote: post #47
Negitivefrags wrote: post #3

Imposter syndrome such a popular thing to belive in because actually most people really do suck at their jobs. I see a similar sentiment all the time where people say things along the lines of "Nobody really feels like an adult, we are all just muddling through" etc etc. Actually no, some of us actually have our shit sorted out and are actual adults.

Yes. To claim to have Imposter Syndrome is really a form of humblebrag, and often a way of seeking validation. "No, you really _are_ smart and capable"

Exactly. It also provides a bandaid for their self image, and provides an excuse for being ignorant or mediocre.

I've only ever observed mediocre people talk about imposter syndrome. Seems like the author is trying, politely, to express a similar idea.

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