GuySrinivasan comments on Bragging Thread July 2015 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Viliam 13 July 2015 10:01PM

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Comment author: Elo 14 July 2015 11:18:54PM 3 points [-]

I know a few people with varying forms of Imposter syndrome. I have never felt the similar experience and would like to bridge the gap of understanding, and see if I can pull some advice out of your experience. Can you explain more?

Comment author: GuySrinivasan 15 July 2015 04:34:16PM 5 points [-]

For me, when I had it (I have since crawled out and am merely underconfident, scared, etc), the feeling is "I am secretly not nearly* as good as people think I should be and therefore as people think I am because they don't look closely and if they did then they'd find out so wow I hope they don't look closely good thing people are usually content with surface thought hahaha but really oh god".

*understatement

Comment author: Elo 15 July 2015 08:25:17PM 1 point [-]

This makes sense. And growing to overcome these feelings? Have you done anything specifically? or did it shift over time?

Comment author: GuySrinivasan 15 July 2015 09:47:05PM 1 point [-]

Some things I did during recovery which feel related, though I make no hard claims:

  • regular talk therapy including about those issues
  • be completely genuine with at least one person
  • change employers
  • mentor an intern
  • work with a team who were all selected to be both high-functioning and low-ego
  • learn about imposter syndrome
  • accept that I was depressed to the point that I lost a number of years of experience ("explain away" a certain portion of the feeling as genuine)
  • work with an individual who I felt was competent but who I was distinctly more competent than in select areas
  • complete a substantial at-home coding project

It is entirely possible that recovery was simply regression to the mean. I do not know.

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