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You're a better engineer than you think

blog.caranna.works

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Re: You're a better engineer than you think

#3

Post by forgotpwagain »

xyzzy4 wrote: post #2

Caring about how good of an engineer you are is just an exercise of narcissism anyways. The best engineers probably focus more on the external world and their projects than on themselves.

I would argue that the best engineers focus on themselves quite a bit--they just focus on improving themselves and their strengths and weaknesses instead of their relative ranking among others.

Re: You're a better engineer than you think

#5

Post by solarmist »

xyzzy4 wrote: post #2

Caring about how good of an engineer you are is just an exercise of narcissism anyways. The best engineers probably focus more on the external world and their projects than on themselves.

I don't think anyone's immune to thinking about how they rate, but the best know they're good, so it's usually just a passing thought they spend very little time on.

Re: You're a better engineer than you think

#6

Post by jerf »

xyzzy4 wrote: post #2

Caring about how good of an engineer you are is just an exercise of narcissism anyways. The best engineers probably focus more on the external world and their projects than on themselves.

Generally when discussing impostor syndrome, one of the major fears is of being "found out", and in the case of engineering, "fired in disgrace and drummed out of the field, never to have a job in it again". That's not narcissism. It's a legitimate fear. It may not be a fear grounded in reality, but it's a legitimate fear.
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