I noticed one benefit is to help “beat imposter syndrome.”
This is certainly very real, I feel it quite a bit, I recognize references to this more frequently. And they all tend to assume that imposter syndrome means that people are truly capable.
This is an interesting assumption as true imposters also feel like imposters. I don’t mean con people, they are quite brazen. I mean incompetent people also feel like imposters.
I suppose it’s nice to help false imposters overcome their anxieties. But I’d like to see data on false vs true. Assuming that true imposters are false can lead to just lots of noise about BS accomplishments.
I had an employee who would laundry list accomplishments during their annual reviews and it was hard to distinguish true accomplishments vs things like going to a meeting (listed many times) or preparing meeting minutes (listed many times). That employee was challenging and more so because they ascribed to a philosophy of “celebrating all accomplishments.” It was like having unbirthday parties with people not as much fun as the Mad Hatter.
It's funny how the cargo cult hides groupthink. Particularly the psychology of impostor syndrome. It's not just insecurity, it's got an underlying cause. The person affected realizes a truth: that there's a body of knowledge they lack, or they aren't accomplishing much but are still getting approval from their boss. Thats not some kind of "false impostor feeling", that's literally becoming aware of a truth about oneself, followed by fear of consequence.
When peers say "that's just impostor syndrome, don't worry about it!" they're reinforcing a groupthink that we should ignore the truth. The truth is that we often do excel despite our own shortcomings - but those shortcomings are real. We shouldn't hand-wave them away just to feel better, we should be focusing on improving ourselves.
I mean incompetent people also feel like imposters.
Well, not all. Does the share of people that feel like imposters increase or decrease with expertise? I have anecdotal evidence pointing both ways, and no good real study to get data from.
Anyway, imposter syndrome hurting competent people is way too common to ignore. You are just combating the reciprocate hypothesis, what is ok as long as it doesn't also harm the original one.
I wonder if maintaining a list of things would only increase impostor syndrome - it's not about recording your accomplishments, I think, it's about how you feel about them. Is it something that took maximum effort, or do you feel like you were just at the right place at the right time?
Comments
I noticed one benefit is to help “beat imposter syndrome.”
This is certainly very real, I feel it quite a bit, I recognize references to this more frequently. And they all tend to assume that imposter syndrome means that people are truly capable.
This is an interesting assumption as true imposters also feel like imposters. I don’t mean con people, they are quite brazen. I mean incompetent people also feel like imposters.
I suppose it’s nice to help false imposters overcome their anxieties. But I’d like to see data on false vs true. Assuming that true imposters are false can lead to just lots of noise about BS accomplishments.
I had an employee who would laundry list accomplishments during their annual reviews and it was hard to distinguish true accomplishments vs things like going to a meeting (listed many times) or preparing meeting minutes (listed many times). That employee was challenging and more so because they ascribed to a philosophy of “celebrating all accomplishments.” It was like having unbirthday parties with people not as much fun as the Mad Hatter.
It's funny how the cargo cult hides groupthink. Particularly the psychology of impostor syndrome. It's not just insecurity, it's got an underlying cause. The person affected realizes a truth: that there's a body of knowledge they lack, or they aren't accomplishing much but are still getting approval from their boss. Thats not some kind of "false impostor feeling", that's literally becoming aware of a truth about oneself, followed by fear of consequence.
When peers say "that's just impostor syndrome, don't worry about it!" they're reinforcing a groupthink that we should ignore the truth. The truth is that we often do excel despite our own shortcomings - but those shortcomings are real. We shouldn't hand-wave them away just to feel better, we should be focusing on improving ourselves.
Isn't that just what impostor syndrome means? It's not a syndrome to correctly identify yourself as an impostor. That's just "being an impostor".
Well, not all. Does the share of people that feel like imposters increase or decrease with expertise? I have anecdotal evidence pointing both ways, and no good real study to get data from.
Anyway, imposter syndrome hurting competent people is way too common to ignore. You are just combating the reciprocate hypothesis, what is ok as long as it doesn't also harm the original one.
I wonder if maintaining a list of things would only increase impostor syndrome - it's not about recording your accomplishments, I think, it's about how you feel about them. Is it something that took maximum effort, or do you feel like you were just at the right place at the right time?
I have reverse imposter syndrome, where I don't think I'm an imposter, but other people do.