A lot of the discussion here is treating impostor syndrome and qualifications as binary: You're either qualified or not. And your evaluation of your skills is either above your actual skills or not. But it's more nuanced than that. I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. I have impostor syndrome all the time. Why? Because I measure myself against 1) role models that are ahead of me in many ways - I've always do…
Honest question, imagine if at your company tomorrow they decide to fire one principal engineer. Would you find it fair that the one is you? Would yo find it fair if you were among the 10% they fire? The 20%? The 30%? I ask you that because it is much simpler to answer to a binary question like, do I have imposter syndrome? Or put in other words, am I modest? You can make the link with how people see themselves. A lo…
Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
171–180 of 368 posts
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#172A young grad student is suffering from a bout of impostor syndrome.
One day, the student (after weeks of mustering up the required courage) walks into their professor's office.
"Professor, may I ask you a question?" says the grad student.
"Of course" says the professor, barely looking up from their papers.
"What do you think about impostor syndrome? I...hear that most grad students have it at some point."
"Balderdash! I can tell you the vast majority of students here do not have impostor syndrome!" says the professor.
"Really?"
"Of course. For it to be impostor syndrome, they'd actually have to be good"
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Total derail but: > I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. Does anyone other than a MS employee put an M in FAANG?
I've seen "FAGMAN" in a couple places. It really reflects the general sentiment towards those companies as well.
I never considered it before, but the image of a man with fangs that slowly sucks the life out of you also might fit, depending on your PoV.
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft wasn't historically an "internet company". They were an OS only, non-internet company, compared to the rest. When the acronym was created, it was still that way. Even now, they make most of their butter from OS installs, although yes, they have branched out a lot.
The acroynm is based purely on stock performance during the time it was created. You could make the same argument for Apple but Apple was on the list from day 1.
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've seen "FAGMAN" in a couple places. It really reflects the general sentiment towards those companies as well.
I've seen that as FANGMAN - adding NVidia to the mix. I never considered it before, but the image of a man with fangs that slowly sucks the life out of you also might fit, depending on your PoV.
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#176> It's a hard feeling to get over, but every time I feel it, I think about Brazil. He could confidently state something that's objectively not true and would double down if you questioned him about it. I know because this happened to me. I doubted things I knew to be true because he was that confident and that persuasive. I'll never know what was going on inside his head, but I don't think he spent a moment questioni…
It sounds like a cool super power but it sounds like an absolute curse as well. For one, there are people that are relatively unaffected by your RDF, and those people will always see you as a fraud (which you are, if you're doubling down on falsehoods). For two, if you can convince yourself and those around you of anything/everything, it diminishes your innate ability to know what is right. After all, if you can conv…
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#177Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Total derail but: > I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. Does anyone other than a MS employee put an M in FAANG?
I've seen "FAGMAN" in a couple places. It really reflects the general sentiment towards those companies as well.
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#179I'm a bit tired of hearing about imposter syndrome, honestly. It's become trendy to claim you have it, and I feel like the actual number of people suffering from it is much smaller than the self-diagnosed sample.
IMO it is a defense mechanism (as is having unchallenged confidence). Claiming you have imposter syndrome is a way people with a 'fixed mindset' to avoid confronting harsh realities.
Whenever they make a mistake or lack knowledge in something, their whole identity of being an expert, high performing individual or "winner" gets challenged and they experience a loss of their identity. Claiming imposter syndrome is an extremely self-indulgent way to keep their positive identity in tact by rationalizing that their bad feelings in light of failure are somehow false and that all competent people feel the same way. In some ways, someone with arrogant, unwarranted confidence is doing the exact same thing in a different way.
The original sin so to speak is tying success to one's identity instead of viewing it as the multivariate and stochastic process that it is. In order to achieve a goal or a result, you will necessarily have to be thrown into foreign situations where you know close to nothing and start off as a beginner. The outcome doesn't care about your self-righteous "imposter syndrome", you either get the thing done or get someone else to get the thing done. If this involves being humble and studying something, do it. If it involves putting your ego aside and deferring to people who demonstrably know more and learning from them, do it. This calculus has no space to cry about imposter syndrome.
The people who harp on and on about imposter syndrome are more likely to justify insecure behaviors that don't move you closer to the end result in my experience. To iterate, the end result doesn't care about your feelings or self-identity, develop a growth mindset and focus on achieving the outcome in the most effective way possible instead of worrying about who is an "imposter". If you fail at a job and are unable to deliver, there are many factors at play, most of which were already probably predetermined before you accepted the role. The best thing you can do if you find yourself in this situation is to fix it instead of behaving defensively.
Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
#180A lot of the discussion here is treating impostor syndrome and qualifications as binary: You're either qualified or not. And your evaluation of your skills is either above your actual skills or not. But it's more nuanced than that. I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. I have impostor syndrome all the time. Why? Because I measure myself against 1) role models that are ahead of me in many ways - I've always do…
Total derail but: > I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. Does anyone other than a MS employee put an M in FAANG?