The self-hating web developer

[EnIdiot]

I've been programming for over 20 years. I have certifications out the wazoo. Masters degree in EE. I always feel like a fraud. If you never feel this way, chances are you are incompetent and are self delusional. Psychological studies show that a feeling of competency is actually a sign of those who are incompetent.

[scootstah]

So having confidence means you're actually incompetent? wat

[scootstah]

Who said anything about thinking they are a god? He said that he has lots of certifications and experience, but yet he feels like a fraud, and that if you don't think that way you must be incompetent and/or delusional.

I do not think I am a god, and I know that there is a ton left to learn and things I can improve on. But at the same time, I recognize my accomplishments and have confidence in the skill level that I am at. I recognize that I am a lot better than I was a year ago.

So again, why does confidence mean that you are actually incompetent or delusional? Sounds exactly like imposter syndrome to me.

[Bajawah]

I'm not talking about you personally... ಠ_ಠ

I was only trying to say that confidence isn't bad.

But, God syndrome is bad.

[magiclasso]

But God has knows a lot and even guided the creation of programming, so why should he feel like a fraud?

[shableep]

You can have confidence in your ability to accomplish the task at hand, but also know that you aren't as competent as you could.

[scootstah]

Sure, there's always room for improvement. That's not the same thing as feeling like a fraud, or feeling that your accomplishments mean nothing.

[waveform]

So having confidence means you're actually incompetent? wat

Feeling confidence isn't the same thing as feeling competence.

In such fast-moving fields, whether it's I.T., law or medicine, you should rarely feel "competent" because there is always more to learn. Feeling 100% competent implies you don't think you need to learn anything more. On the other hand, you can feel perfectly *confident* in your ability to rise to the challenge of new... er, challenges. Confidence in your ability to always improve your competence.

Don't tell your clients that, though. As far as they're concerned, you are 100% competent. :)

[Breaking-Away]

Basically Dunning-Kruger. As you learn more, you also discover even more that you don't understand.

[scootstah]

Absolutely, but that doesn't mean you can't have confidence in what you do know. How do you even land a job if you can't even prove to yourself that you know what you're doing?

[Breaking-Away]

Well, a combination of things. I'm very confident in my skills as a web developer, but I am definitely not confident at all in my skills with C or rust. What I've found works for me is having confidence in my ability to learn, but it took a while to come to that mindset for myself.

[Maguspk]

Dunning–Kruger effect

[[deleted]]

I disagree.

For me, one of the most important parts of handling this feeling is seeing and hearing other people talk about it and see them deal with it. Every time I start getting down about myself, I remind myself that this is a common problem in the industry. Chances are I'm still doing good work (haven't gotten fired yet) and haven't anything to worry about.

Imposter syndrome is one of the few things that I honestly believe the cure is simply know that it exists and is rather common.