David Walsh shares some thoughts on an impostor syndrome. I’m sure anyone in the tech industry can relate. I certainly do.
“Impostor” is a powerful word but that’s how I have felt during all of my career as a professional web developer. I feel like I’ve learned every day of the ride but I feel like I’m way behind. I feel like people see me as something of an expert where I see myself as an accident waiting to happen. I’m a complete impostor. A fraud.
Apart from the honesty of his feelings, I like his ways of snapping out of it. They do work for me too:
- Look at your (hopefully decent) employment history and know that, on a basic level, you’re much more wanted than you’re wanted gone
- Log onto the IRC channel of a skill you feel comfortable with and answer questions of those asking
- Realize that people who consider themselves “experts”, and don’t go through waves of self doubt, are idiots that are so arrogant to not know what they don’t know
- Remember the last time a non-developer friend asked you the most basic of computer-related questions
- Perform any simple exercise in the JavaScript console
- BLOG! The worst thing that can happen is someone corrects you and you learn something out of it
- Review your code and find little nits to fix
One other thing that helps me, is this bit by Joe Rogan:
He talks more generically about life, but I think it’s equally applicable to technology knowledge as well.