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Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

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Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#341

Post by mewpmewp2 »

onjectic wrote: post #304
mewpmewp2 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue in these cases is that you have a hard time not focusing on them. These intrusive thoughts come all the time, take up mental energy and time. It would be best to just focus on actually building things, but it's not always as simple. It may alleviate the thoughts if you knew for sure that you are not an impostor from a source you can trust or perhaps it will require therapy. Or maybe you can actually push th…

Having a very hard time not focusing on intrusive thoughts is a symptom of OCD.

Yeah, but this is depression and anxiety too. Constantly having to deal with negative thoughts. In theory, just change brain chemistry slightly and you will have fewer negative thoughts and more positive. Not everyone has similar amount of doubts.

So an outsider who says "just deal with it", won't know the ratio and magnitude of negative to positive thoughts, someone else might have.

Everyone has doubts, but frequency and strength may vary.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#342

Post by Marvin_Martian »

lhorie wrote: post #258
deanCommie wrote: post #77

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…

Here's an unpopular opinion: this whole thing about impostor syndrome honestly seems like a thinly veiled humble brag. The narrative seems to be "nobody's perfect, but I am aware that I have imperfections so brownie points for me". IMHO, there's no real correlation between confidence and ability. There are extremely capable athletes with terrible ego problems and there are people that legitimately fall into death spi…

This opinion is comparable to saying: "Depression is not real, everybody gets sad sometimes" or "ADHD is not real everybody gets distracted sometimes".

Just because some attribute exists in normal doses in most people, does not mean that it can exist in debilitating doses in a minority.

Of course, a big difference between imposter syndrome and the aforementioned illnesses is that imposter syndrome is not in the DSM-5. But if you look at the history of the DSM-5, you will notice that adding a new illness is a very slow and politicized process. And a large number of psychologists are treating it a bit to seriously for it to be just a "humble brag".

That doesnt mean everybody talking about their imposter syndrome would really classify as having it. Similarly people who checked webmd and now believe that they have cancer, also do not necessarily have cancer. That still doesnt mean that every cancer-sufferer is a fraud.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#343

Post by Marvin_Martian »

imtringued wrote: post #313
Shish2k wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how long until we run out of types-of-intelligence to automate, and realise that “humans have a unique spark (a soul?) that makes them fundamentally different to machines” was a dream all along...

What if we build an AI that believes it has a soul? How would it be functionally different from a human with that same faith?

Well, in the AIs case we could E-Mail the creator and ask: "Did you build a soul into this thing?"

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#344

Post by convolvatron »

cornel_io wrote: post #311
labster wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went ahead and did the experiment: I felt like I was contributing nothing of value at my last job after seven years and just slowed things down, so I ended up giving 5 weeks notice. My employer agreed I was useless and decided to turn that into 9 days notice. The result: they are even further behind than they were with me, and occasionally people still contact me from the old company for tech advice. I guess it was…

Accelerating notice is not always indication that your employer doesn't find you valuable, I almost always prefer to do that, especially with highly productive people: once an employee knows they are leaving and has announced it, anything they do other than tie up loose ends is more liability than benefit, and good people will do more. But their head is not 100% in it, they don't expect to have to maintain what they…

I have left _alot_ of jobs.

Never once were exit activities well-considered and useful.

sometimes I think most management failures are because they are acting like they are supposed to and not how they should

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#345

Post by ASalazarMX »

the_only_law wrote: post #302
ASalazarMX wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Used to be a midrange programmer who others thought as brilliant. It was hard to start two decades ago, but always looking for a challenge meant consistent growth for years. After five years it felt too easy, like cheating. My peers would struggle for a week with what I could deliver in an afternoon. Seeking better opportunities I migrated to web development, and boy, it's hard to be a novice again. Everyone I worked…

> Now web development doesn't pay that well, so the natural path was cybersecurity. Still learning, and I feel like this will be my last career change because it takes years to stop feeling dumb and start feeling like an impostor again. Does cybersecurity pay better, at least in certain markets/contexts I was under the impression that doing web dev would land you several thousands more salary wise, though I'd certain…

At the same level, development always pays better. I had the fortune to be promoted from senior developer to CISO when the area was formally opened at a small company.

To be honest, I feel the change came before I felt proficient at web development, but I'm happy because I was always complaining about unsafe practices, and now I get to write the policies.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#346

Post by jldugger »

rfrey wrote: post #210
jldugger wrote: post #87

Earlier 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'm going to archive this subthread for the next time someone asks me what "bikeshedding" is.

I don't really care, other than to hint to the author that they're giving away more info than is being shared. Did not expect a million replies =)

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#348

Post by baobabKoodaa »

pnt12 wrote: post #327
baobabKoodaa wrote: post #141

So, we have a group of people who lack sufficient skills for their job, and we have another group who _feel like_ they lack sufficient skills for their job. The author is claiming that these groups have no overlap whatsoever. There's absolutely no way that could be true. Considering how many people are bad at what they do, and how many people feel like they aren't good enough, surely there's at least one person in th…

Surely there is one person in the world: that would be the anecdote to the data. We can't disregard something if there is one conflicting data point, unless we're talking about maths or proofs. With that being said: if someone is feeling bad because they think they're an impostor, first they should: 1. Reflect if they really are 2. If yes, improve 3. If can't improve, either embrace it or quit

> Surely there is one person in the world: that would be the anecdote to the data. We can't disregard something if there is one conflicting data point, unless we're talking about maths or proofs.

The claim here was "no single counter-datapoint can possibly exist", so in this case, one counter-datapoint is indeed sufficient to prove the claim false.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#349

Post by lhorie »

Marvin_Martian wrote: post #342
lhorie wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's an unpopular opinion: this whole thing about impostor syndrome honestly seems like a thinly veiled humble brag. The narrative seems to be "nobody's perfect, but I am aware that I have imperfections so brownie points for me". IMHO, there's no real correlation between confidence and ability. There are extremely capable athletes with terrible ego problems and there are people that legitimately fall into death spi…

This opinion is comparable to saying: "Depression is not real, everybody gets sad sometimes" or "ADHD is not real everybody gets distracted sometimes". Just because some attribute exists in normal doses in most people, does not mean that it can exist in debilitating doses in a minority. Of course, a big difference between imposter syndrome and the aforementioned illnesses is that imposter syndrome is not in the DSM-5…

I'm not aware of impostor syndrome being considered anywhere on the same level as actually diagnosed depression/ADHD by physicians, nor of it being considered for addition into the DSM, slow and bureaucratic as it may be.

The variety I'm referring to is the one that comes from people like the one I originally responded to, who, by all accounts, is a successful functioning member of society. So, yeah, I think it's fair to say "claiming impostor syndrome is just describing a normal feeling" in contexts where the person is clearly not overwhelmed to the point of dysfunction.

Even if there is such a thing as actually crippling impostor syndrome, that's not what I see being brought up in these kinds of discussions.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#350

Post by wiether »

IshKebab wrote: post #324
Trasmatta wrote: post #52

I'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.

Yeah people think it's like some kind of psychological illness like bipolar disorder just because it has "syndrome" in the name. It's not a syndrome. When you're feeling nervous at a job interview do you have "interview syndrome"? No. That is dumb. This is all dumb.

I admire your confidence.
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