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Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are an imposter? (2020) [pdf]

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Re: Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are an imposter? (2020) [pdf]

#11

Post by sumtechguy »

_benj wrote: post #3

Remind me of a random idea from heard somewhere: I’m not crazy because crazy people don’t think they are crazy… Loved what the author mentioned about how not being an imposter can be verified. Have you produced something that solves a customer need? Have you fixed a bug in somebody’s code? Have you produced something that is of value to somebody else? Then you are not an imposter! You are able to do what a typical de…

For me sometimes I know exactly what I am doing. I am 'the guy' for that thing. But for many items I have zero idea how I am going to go about it. That is when it kicks in for me. But I recognize it and use it as a reason to say 'hey explain this to me'. Instead of sitting around hoping no one notices. I use it to my advantage.

Re: Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are an imposter? (2020) [pdf]

#12

Post by henning »

You don't know what people are actually going through without gathering more information. Maybe they are in the wrong job or field, maybe their coworkers are just jerks and they have insecurity due to how poeple have treated them in the past. Constructing strawmen like this is easy and not insightful.

Re: Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are an imposter? (2020) [pdf]

#14

Post by ineedasername »

This fails to acknowledge the fact that imposter syndrome is generally an irrational belief and often coexists with others forms of mental health issues. This means that (while I'm sure it's part of a humble brag sometimes) that admitting to this feeling while following up with evidence to the contrary fits squarely with the fact that it's an irrational belief. It's one that is held despite counter evidence that the individual may be fully aware of. Try telling someone with OCD that they don't need to check the door lock for the 4th time. They remember checking it 5 seconds earlier, and 5 before that. It's not about evidence.

As such, this article says very little about the people the author makes fun of but a whole lot about the author's ignorance on the topic.

Re: Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are an imposter? (2020) [pdf]

#15

Post by faeriechangling »

saagarjha wrote: post #8

Just want to vent for a moment, because the author seems to genuinely think that people displaying vulnerability and disclosing their impostor syndrome to you is some sort of humblebrag? You don’t need to sus out some sort of hidden meaning here: the person doesn’t feel comfortable in their current environment and is probably seeking support and validation. There are surely some among us who are “faking” it, but that…

“Imposter syndrome” is fundamentally a humblebrag as the implicit notion is that your worthiness is so obvious and the system which privileged you is so righteous as to make any doubts some sort of disorder.

I’ll see people being like “I have imposter syndrome being in an Ivy League school/elite job/etc” and the idea that they could be gasp merely average and just overrated is so preposterous as to warrant immediate assistance from a doctor! They’re suffering from a modesty attack basically, which is no surprise as their greatness is hard for them to square with in their own minds.

Imposter syndrome is really mostly having an objective view of the world and realizing that elite success is mostly arbitrary especially when that success has no objective measure. It’s pathologized because it threatens power and people are encouraged to believe they are indeed special.

Re: Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are an imposter? (2020) [pdf]

#18

Post by blitzar »

noun: imposter syndrome

the persistent inability to believe that one's success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one's own efforts or skills.

I am not sure the author and I share the same definition of the subject of the piece.

Re: Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are an imposter? (2020) [pdf]

#19

Post by Tzela »

This article makes me furious. What does the author want to tell us? That everyone who feels like an imposter, and talks about it, is an arrogant arse that only wants to brag? Maybe he is and all the people he meets are. But me as well as many of my close friends (none of them arrogant, I assure you) do feel like an imposter at their specific jobs from time to time. It's a thing that holds us back, a personal insecurity that we just carry around. We have learned to live with it and accept it as just something completely normal, especially because we talked about it.

Re: Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are an imposter? (2020) [pdf]

#20

Post by zensavona »

rjh29 wrote: post #9

Writeup ignores the nuances of mental health - there is a gradient between "I am definitely an imposter" and "I have imposter sydrome, these thoughts are not real". In between is a miasma of self-doubt and anxiety. And it can change depending on the time and the situation. If a friend or colleague confided in me that they felt like an imposter (but weren't sure) I would treat that as a tremendous act of trust, not an…

This. We exist in a weird situation where on one hand we are encouraged to be open and transparent about what we don't know, in order to grow and improve, but on the other hand, are paid and valued largely according to what we know.

Crossing that boundary required a lot of trust at times. Company culture valuing growth over outright performance can go a long way, but is also sometimes not aligned profits.

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