Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
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Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
1–10 of 24 posts
Re: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
#2When I started my doctorate years ago, one of the college dons told the first-years that everybody is afraid we'll be "found out", and that somehow our previous track record was merely a fluke. He said these feelings were normal and that we should just let them go. I haven't worried about it since.
Re: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
#3What do you call the opposite of impostor syndrome? When someone thinks they made it to their awesome position by being awesome, whereas in fact they were just lucky?
Alternatively, how about the syndrome where someone blames bad luck for their failures, but in fact their failures are really just due to the fact that they personally suck?
Re: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
#4What do you call the opposite of impostor syndrome? When someone thinks they made it to their awesome position by being awesome, whereas in fact they were just lucky? Alternatively, how about the syndrome where someone blames bad luck for their failures, but in fact their failures are really just due to the fact that they personally suck?
according to wikipedia, this is called the "dunning-kruger effect": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Re: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
#5Great article.
Wanted to comment on this "The first project I did on my own was jeansbargains ... I built it and then realized that I did not want to spend the time looking for deals to put on it"
This seems to run as a common theme in many engineer friends (including myself, several times.) When approached with a sales-like problem, such as a opening a store or a SaaS product, or even starting a social network, we dig into the code first and build, but then get stymied by the "business stuff" necessary to get things off the ground. This might mean not e-mailing potential customers, sales leads, blogging, etc. In the meantime, we'd spend time polishing back-end code that no one will end up using.
I have several unfinished projects due to this syndrome (does it have a name?) And while I am not better at this yet, reading HN has definitely inspired me to do more than just code in that regard.
Re: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
#6What do you call the opposite of impostor syndrome? When someone thinks they made it to their awesome position by being awesome, whereas in fact they were just lucky? Alternatively, how about the syndrome where someone blames bad luck for their failures, but in fact their failures are really just due to the fact that they personally suck?
"jerk" would be a descriptive term.
Re: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
#7What do you call the opposite of impostor syndrome? When someone thinks they made it to their awesome position by being awesome, whereas in fact they were just lucky? Alternatively, how about the syndrome where someone blames bad luck for their failures, but in fact their failures are really just due to the fact that they personally suck?
according to wikipedia, this is called the "dunning-kruger effect": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
That is a related but different phenomenon. What you're looking for is called "self-serving bias." https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Self-serving_... The dunning-kruger effect is much more subtle than that, take another look at the wiki article on it.
Also related, the actor-observer bias, which describes the opposite effect, and has had more research done on it. This is a common problem in psychology, humans are so full of contradiction.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Actor%E2%80%9...
Re: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
#8Too bad I can't admit to feeling a bit of relief upon learning about the impostor syndrome, since doing so would certainly out me as the fraud I am.
Re: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
#9There was once a billboard campaign on the tube in london that played on impostor syndrome, while managing at the same to be a double entendre.
The slogan went: "Faking it? Try a new position."
Re: Overcoming Impostor Syndrome
#10Great article. Wanted to comment on this "The first project I did on my own was jeansbargains ... I built it and then realized that I did not want to spend the time looking for deals to put on it" This seems to run as a common theme in many engineer friends (including myself, several times.) When approached with a sales-like problem, such as a opening a store or a SaaS product, or even starting a social network, we d…
> does it have a name?
The division of labour. Different people have different strengths and preferences. Gains are made from trading on those differences.