I guess I just don't really believe this. It sounds nice, and it might even be a good falsehood to tell yourself for personal motivation—but that doesn't make it true. Yes, of course if you're an actual fraudster intending to commit fraud, you're probably comfortable with committing fraud. But feeling "impostor syndrome" colloquially means second-guessing whether you're good enough to deserve your position. There are…
Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
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Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#32Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#33And actual sociopaths sleep perfectly fine at night after scamming widows and kicking orphans. What I'd like to know is what the evolutionary reason for this is.
First to recognize the Hollywood villain you describe is not the typical case and that an appreciable fraction of the population will be blind to various hues of of the emotional gamut most of us (I hope) are aware of.
The evolutionary pressure is to not cycle through hundreds of complex, cascading emotional states before deciding to act.
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#34This is definitely not true. Sometimes people accurately evaluate their own skill level and are disappointed at the evaluation.
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#35Hmm. I don't usually get imposter syndrome. Wait, does that mean this is saying I am an imposter? Oh no, what if I am? But wait, wasn't that thought imposter syndrome? That means I'm not an imposter. Wait, now I'm back to not having imposter syndrome. Oh no.
1. If an animal is a dog, then it has four legs.
2. My cat has four legs.
3. Therefore, my cat is a dog.
The problem is the conclusion is the result of a reversal of the conditional statement. Similarly, you've said, essentially,
1. If I am an imposter, then I will not feel like an imposter.
2. I do not feel like an imposter.
3. Therefore I am an imposter.
The conclusion doesn't follow from the premises.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirming_the_consequent
ETA: If your comment was a joke, then forget everything I wrote – which does not mean that if you forget everything I wrote, then your comment was a joke. :-)
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#36But the problems you solve on the job rarely if ever resemble those problems.
Perhaps we have a lot of impostor syndrome because we have a lot of people who aren't the right fit for their job. (This has been my personal experience.)
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#37The first category is often full of narcissists, who think they know more despite evidence, or literal cons like described in the post.
The second category is people who are unfortunately correct about their situation, but perhaps they should be happy they've got the job they've got. If they detached their sense of worth from their work they might be a lot happier.
The third category is people who think they're in category 2 but are more competent than they know. They underestimate their own abilities, either because of a belief that their skills are misplaced and they won't transfer to what they're doing now, or they have some unresolved anxiety issue, or something traumatic happened in their past, or they're out of place in terms of culture and fit, or a dozen other reasons.
The final category is where we all want to be. Sometimes people in category 1, in service of helping category 3 and hurting category 1, try to make it seem like they actually don't know what they're doing. I don't think this is healthy though. If you know something, you should be proud of knowing it. Furthermore, if you have power, you should recognize it, if only because you should know before you hurt someone else.
IMHO this is why we've ended up in a society where no one takes responsibility for their own lives. Everyone wants someone else to take responsibility - usually either a company or a politician. Everyone wants to stop climate change but no one will stop eating meat or flying on planes. Everyone wants a more equitable situation but most people donate hardly any part of their salary at all, even if they could. People want privacy, and to use social media services for free, with an unending list of features. I could go on and on about what people will do to shift the blame onto someone else.
I don't want to say there's no such thing as structural issues, there are economic issues and political issues which legitimately need solutions that are global/social/political. Just because someone flies somewhere once a year doesn't mean that they should die from heat stroke. It also doesn't mean that a company should be allowed to pollute 1000x that single flight every minute of every single day. It's just that these are the logical consequences of a society where no one takes responsibility.
Deciding to not take responsibility because you think that you are not capable of being responsible sounds responsible/good/morally correct - but it isn't if you actually are capable of being responsible. And I guess that's my gripe with impostor syndrome, it feels a little like a dodge or like an excuse. I'm never sure how to evaluate that excuse, and compare it to other excuses, and which excuses are real and which ones are fake. I'd like to live in a culture where people with impostor syndrome were helped, but the condition wasn't glorified, so I could always presume the excuse was real. Maybe our culture should just be more clinical about these sorts of things.
The final question then would be, how to create a culture that is more clinical, or more objective about certain conditions. How do you talk about performance in an objective way? How do you talk about (mental) health in an objective way? We're really far off from being able to do that, but at least it puts everything into context. It also gives a fairly simple actionable plan to those with impostor syndrome - how can you objectively measure your results? How about other peoples results in a similar position? What metrics would even make up an objective evaluation? This is where you have to be very careful, after all, if you are in category 3 you are likely to design metrics that punish you at the benefit of others. You don't know as much about other people's mistakes as you do your own. You have to be very very careful not to do this. After doing this, you will know for sure if you are an impostor or not. Once you know, either way you won't be bothered by it anymore. You move into category 2 or category 4, and you can learn to accept what you are from there on.
Just don't sit in this in-between of pretending to be confident to other people but not actually being confident. That will eat you up inside. That will eat up the whole world, if we're not careful about it.
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#38Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#39Hmm. I don't usually get imposter syndrome. Wait, does that mean this is saying I am an imposter? Oh no, what if I am? But wait, wasn't that thought imposter syndrome? That means I'm not an imposter. Wait, now I'm back to not having imposter syndrome. Oh no.
Your comment is an example of a logical fallacy called "affirming the consequent." Borrowing from Wikipedia, a good example of affirming the consequent is: 1. If an animal is a dog, then it has four legs. 2. My cat has four legs. 3. Therefore, my cat is a dog. The problem is the conclusion is the result of a reversal of the conditional statement. Similarly, you've said, essentially, 1. If I am an imposter, then I wil…
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#40This concept is so tired! If you grind for years to mastery under the tutelage of true masters, you feel no imposter syndrome - you feel confident and complete in yourself. Temet Nosce