The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
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Re: The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
#2This article does not make any sense to me. It basically explains imposter syndrome as the consequence of having unrealistic external expectations of success and ability, requiring a fake persona, e.g. being the result of privilege and expectations that come with it, but then also dismisses mens experience of this phenomenon, and talks about how it’s basically the result of systematic injustice against women. How can it be both? And how can they justify hand waving away the fact that men also experience this?
Re: The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
#3> her mother had taught her that naturally smart people don’t have to study.
Of all the parts of the article, that little bit stands out.
Because I see my older kid do that all the time, as if putting in effort to do something is somehow not the real thing. As if things learned from mistakes and practice is not progress - a substitute for talent.
Re: The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
#4This article does not make any sense to me. It basically explains imposter syndrome as the consequence of having unrealistic external expectations of success and ability, requiring a fake persona, e.g. being the result of privilege and expectations that come with it, but then also dismisses mens experience of this phenomenon, and talks about how it’s basically the result of systematic injustice against women. How can…
>Although men do report feeling like impostors, the experience is primarily associated with women
No citation on that one...
Re: The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
#5> her mother had taught her that naturally smart people don’t have to study. Of all the parts of the article, that little bit stands out. Because I see my older kid do that all the time, as if putting in effort to do something is somehow not the real thing. As if things learned from mistakes and practice is not progress - a substitute for talent.
You can't divine the value of experience, except from experience.
Re: The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
#6I have never felt like I am faking it, is that really strange?
Re: The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
#7This article does not make any sense to me. It basically explains imposter syndrome as the consequence of having unrealistic external expectations of success and ability, requiring a fake persona, e.g. being the result of privilege and expectations that come with it, but then also dismisses mens experience of this phenomenon, and talks about how it’s basically the result of systematic injustice against women. How can…
>Although men do report feeling like impostors, the experience is primarily associated with women No citation on that one...
Anecdotally, as a man in academia, all of the men I know closely also experience this. It’s pretty much universal for men and women. If it’s more associated with women, I think that is because it’s less socially acceptable for men to be vulnerable, or discuss their feelings.
It makes sense to me that it is in a sense a consequence of privilege, success, and opportunities. If nobody believes in you, or expects a lot from you, you won’t feel like an imposter.
Re: The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
#8I have never felt like I am faking it, is that really strange?
Me either
Re: The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
#9I have never felt like I am faking it, is that really strange?
Yeah people in hard sciences can't really fake as a workhorse. However, I have worked at a job where almost everyone but me was an onshore offshore copy/paste StackOverflow "software engineer" and they were absolutely fakers but they truly didn't see themself as such. Their main defense was to make sure to only hire other "engineers" who were even worse than them. That type of hiring cascades to zero nicely.
Re: The concept of Impostor Syndrome has become ubiquitous
#10> her mother had taught her that naturally smart people don’t have to study. Of all the parts of the article, that little bit stands out. Because I see my older kid do that all the time, as if putting in effort to do something is somehow not the real thing. As if things learned from mistakes and practice is not progress - a substitute for talent.
It's related to pride, in my experience tutoring high school and college kids. That was my own experience while growing up as well, there's a sentiment that "natural" smartness and hard-working smartness are two seperate things.
I feel like kids have been moving away from this mindset, but maybe it's changed names. Growing up being a "nerd" was uncool, and studying was "nerdy". After college, I talked to some of the people who were the "naturally" smart kids and I found out they lied so much about how much time they spent not studying. Everyone lies. Part of it, I learned, was that my graduating class ended up with a lot of cut-throat people, they lied about how much work they put in to gatekeep. I don't speak to a single person from my graduating year now even though I am friends with some teachers as well as kids from other years. A similar concept but less isolated to academics has been kind of a popular "insult". I sometimes hear the concept of "sweaty" being uncool among the youngest ages I teach. Sweaty, as in working so hard towards something that you work up a sweat. It's doesn't have to be a physical activity, you can be called sweaty at video games, or sweaty at math.
Education is a weird place to use the word talent, looking back. You can't wake up knowing new information. Everyone has to learn, the people who look talented just learned it earlier than everyone else. I am not sure why hard working is seen as uncool at that age. I wonder if it's different in other parts of the world, I learned that I have a very typical north eastern USA experience.