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Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

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Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#91

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…

Total derail but: > I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. Does anyone other than a MS employee put an M in FAANG?

Definitely not. This is literally the first time I’ve even seen FAAMNG.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#92

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…

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 think as of late FAAMG is more popular or appropriate than FAANG, but I mean, who knows.

According to Wikipedia at least https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Tech

Edit: Not popular maybe, but appropriate still.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#93

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…

Total derail but: > I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. Does anyone other than a MS employee put an M in FAANG?

Gretchen, stop trying to make FAAMNG happen! It's not gonna happen!

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#94

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…

Total derail but: > I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. Does anyone other than a MS employee put an M in FAANG?

Lmao, had the same thought.

Also, did you get a lot of those participation trophies when you were a kid? I read a take on those recently, along the lines of, "if the adults always praise everyone, then their praise is meaningless and can't be trusted". Ie, a recipe for impostor syndrome in later life. I certainly experience that. Anytime I participate in an activity that I'm naturally talented at, I figure it's just not that difficult and I've done nothing special.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#95
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's a long way to say P => Q is not the same as Q => P or P Q.

No, it's a more accessible way of saying it.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#96
The title is somewhat misleading, because it's talking about two different types of imposter.

The "imposter" of "imposter syndrome" believes others didn't figure what they really are, that they're flawed, underskilled, will fail, etc. ; and that makes you somewhat of a fraud, i.e. an imposter, because they're secretly not the skilled person that was hired.

The "actual imposter" from the "imposter syndrome" would be someone who actually lied about their skills and flaws, or at the very least don't have these skills. I don't know if these "imposters" have the imposter syndrome or not - but for the sake of argument I would assume that they have the same doubts as everyone else and that they do have imposter syndrome.

The "actual imposter" who the author is mentioning is a con, someone who was secretly malfeasant and there for their own benefit. What's more is that from what the author is saying, they seem pretty skilled, and confident. So of course they don't have imposter syndrome: they fixed an organization, bring in money, their plan is going well.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#97
post #31

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…

Agree, specially because everyone has above average IQ. That being said this conversation always feels to me like "are soldiers afraid before a battle" type discussion. Either they are or they aren't has no bearing on what they do. They have to be brave and get out there. Same here, just realise everyone has doubts, and instead of spending time making a big thing of it and "dealing with it", just put your head down a…

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 through it, as you said. Anxiety, depression and low self esteem however can take a strong enough toll that simply pushing through and dealing with it may be too difficult without help.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#99
post #95
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a long way to say P => Q is not the same as Q => P or P Q.

No, it's a more accessible way of saying it.

I don't really agree. I find the long-winded version confusing, and as I am not sure if there is a gotcha somewhere in there, I have to read the whole thing and follow the whole argument. You don't necessarily have to use math symbols, but it really helps to be terse.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#100
post #91

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?

Definitely not. This is literally the first time I’ve even seen FAAMNG.

Same. Sup, faam.
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