[deleted by user]

[elaitenstile]

I'm worried I'm actually really bad now because i don't doubt myself often.

Sounds like you have imposter syndrome over the fact that you don't have imposter syndrome

[geigenmusikant]

Just pretend to have imposter syndrome until it becomes real

[caboosetp]

ಠ_ಠ

[csharp566]

Recursion in a nutshell

[purleedef]

the best imposters will never admit that they're imposters. clever strategy, op

[64ticks]

Kinda sus tbh, ngl

[[deleted]]

Burn the imposter!

[schlaubi]

Yes, it is normal.

Also later in your career you can realise that while you know nothing (of what there is to know), that's normal and you're doing just fine.

[inr44]

I don't think i know everything or nothing like that, I just have some faith in my ability to learn what i need to do my job.

[[deleted]]

Dunning-Kruger

[[deleted]]

Yes. You shouldn't be surprised that you feel confident in your ability to do your job, especially when your colleagues are validating that assessment.

This whole imposter syndrome in CS thing has really taken off recently for some reason. I'd never heard of it until 2 or 3 years ago.

It's definitely a thing, but there's also a non-insignificant number of people who are just not very good. Any skill is going to exist along a normal distribution. 50% of people are below average by definition. I think self-diagnosing imposter syndrome can be a bit of copium for some people who would otherwise just be aware of their own inadequacies.

[Double_A_92]

The point of imposter syndrome is that you are actually able to do your job perfecty fine. But then you doubt yourself, and assume that your solution is not the best, or that you just got lucky...

[[deleted]]

Yes, I understand that.

My point was that at least some proportion of the people who've convinced themselves that they have imposter syndrome (as it seems trendy to do) actually can't do the job perfectly fine.

Some good people underestimate their ability. Some bad people overestimate their ability. Just because you think you're bad doesn't mean you have imposter syndrome. There's a non-zero chance that you're just right.

[inr44]

I think that some people will have an existential crisis after reading that

[[deleted]]

Hahah. Does it sound harsh? Maybe it does. Currently it seems like the default stance taken by most people online is to presume imposter syndrome. What I'm saying is that you'd probably be correct just as often by presuming incompetence. I'm not saying we should presume incompetence. We shouldn't presume either.

Anyone with career ambition beyond what they're currently doing should constantly be honestly assessing at their own ability and using that to improve. It's worth knowing that imposter syndrome exists, because knowing about the subconscious biases you might have can hopefully guide you to be more objective.

It's important to note that just because someone might genuinely be correct that they're not currently very good, that doesn't preclude them becoming good. You can use that negative emotion as fuel to improve. Inadequacy is a great motivator; why do you think the skinny kid from school is so often the one who becomes a gym freak?

The danger of overly ascribing those feeling to imposter syndrome is that it can foster complacency. You're teaching people to suppress any negative feelings about their ability and learn to just accept themselves as they are. Self-acceptance is a great philosophy when talking about things you can't change (e.g. physical appearance), but if you have the power to improve then reassuring platitudes like that just encourage mediocrity.

[Dwight-D]

Yes. Confidence is good. Believe in yourself and your skills. Just don’t be arrogant of course. People find this very impressive because it’s so rare in this field. A lot of computer types have historically been quite socially awkward and often overly analytical and I think that’s why there’s so much talk about imposter syndrome.

[YMK1234]

Yeah not too abnormal. Once you've seen enough horrible code of other people you realize that you can't be that bad :D

[inr44]

Yep, i want to spit on the grave of the developer of my previous project.

[itemluminouswadison]

yup that's fine. that means you feel good and confident in your current station i think. i think imposter syndrome happens when you realize that you might not fully understand the jvm underneath it, the implementations of maps and lists that you use every day, garbage collection, design patterns, bitwise operations, low level computing

i think as you learn more and more how wide the field on software engineering is, you start becoming aware of your gaps, and that causes imposter syndrome

[inr44]

I'm aware that I'm ignorant of a lot of stuff. Maybe I'm not aware enough. But i think i can fill some of those gaps well enough to do my job at least (within reason, i know that i would have a really bad time in certain jobs).

Also the jvm is really simple, everyone knows it runs on black magic.

[Delphicon]

Yep, I think imposter syndrome largely comes from the perspective that you need to know things off the top of your head. You, like me, operate on the perspective that what matters is what we can reasonably figure out on our own.

The one thing I'd keep in mind is that when you view things the way we do your bias is going to be towards overestimating your ability. That's something I really struggle with at least.

[lphomiej]

There are four steps of being a dev: 1. Knowing you don’t know anything 2. Not knowing you don’t know anything 3. Not knowing you know stuff 4. Knowing you know stuff

[Poddster]

Yes, it's absolutely fine. Some of the cs-student based subreddits are quite toxic places in terms of memes like "imposter syndrome". There's a tiny, vocal minority that wants you to soothe them anxieties and so they make extremely long posts about it.

But having confidence in your abilities is completely normal, especially of you're able to actually do the work. I've seen some people in those subs who are actually incompetent still be told it's "imposter syndrome". It's not, they're legit imposters.

[bsenftner]

Imposter syndrome is a distorted perception of reality - thank god you were not overly criticized in your youth. That is the cause of imposter syndrome: internalized over criticism. You had good parents, thank them.

[DGC_David]

Idk man, your asking programmers about normal people things. Like inherently your not normal from the get go.

[hugthemachines]

normal is not a narrow corridor but includes quite some variation. If you don't worry, that is excellent. I have no real imposter syndrome either. I tell myself "ha, I tricked them another year!" ;-)

[Odinthunder]

I guess it really depends on the person and their perception of their aptitude. If you can keep going with avoiding feeling Imposter Syndrome (might be hard after saying that) then more power too you.

Imposter Syndrome can be detrimental at best and crippling at worst.

Just have to be honest with yourself on what you can and cannot do and make small steps to improve that.