You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

buybuydandavis comments on What I think about you - Less Wrong Discussion

16 Post author: cousin_it 29 November 2011 11:28PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (40)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: buybuydandavis 12 December 2011 08:54:42AM 0 points [-]

I think there are two issues with feeling like an "imposter".

On the one hand, having unrealistic expectations of yourself, so that you are an imposter, by those standards.

The applying an entirely different standard of imposter to other people.

If you applied that same standard, to yourself, using only the kind of publicly available knowledge that you use to judge whether someone else is an imposter, it's likely you're not an imposter by those standards at all.

One unrealistic standard for you, a realistic standard for others, and you treat them in your mind like the same thing.

How do other people fare when you apply your own standards to them? How many of them aren't imposters? If they evaluated like you do, using their own knowledge of their failures and limitations, would they feel like imposters too?