duckduckMOO comments on Calibrate your self-assessments - LessWrong

68 Post author: Yvain 09 October 2011 11:26PM

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Comment author: Prismattic 10 October 2011 02:33:51AM 25 points [-]

I've noticed that I have a particular form of calibration problem, for which I don't know if there is a specific term. Tentatively, I'm calling it "pernicious sliding selective self-assessment."

What I mean by this is that all of my achievements become diminished in my own eyes, because my frame of reference for comparison gradually excludes people who haven't reached at least an equal level of achievement:

-- When I started working out, I gradually came to ignore the 80% (or whatever it is) of the population that is sedentary and could only compare myself to the people I see at the gym, a disproportionate number of whom make me look weak by comparison.

-- Similarly, when I took up a martial art, I ended up comparing myself not to the population as a whole, but to the more advanced practitioners, thus feeling incompetent.

-- I have a lot of academic accomplishments, including a degree summa cum laude from a competitive university and a Fulbright fellowship. Yet I suffer horribly from imposter syndrome, in part because my frame of reference for comparison gradually weans out anyone who isn't also academically accomplished.

Unfortunately, the fact that I am aware this is happening doesn't seem to help overcome it.

Comment author: duckduckMOO 07 November 2011 12:06:58AM *  1 point [-]

I don't see the problem. You have high standards. It would be crazy to compare yourself to an average person in each of these situations. Do you really want to feel good about lifting more weight than the average sedentary person as a gym-goer? In martial arts specifically I think you should always be comparing yourself to the person directly above you. It's competitive and its self improvement. Slightly better is what you should be next week. A lot better is what you should be next year. The "impostor syndrome" (yes, those are scare quotes) seems like a seperate issue to me. Comparing yourself to those around you might make you feel insecure and untalented if you have a bias towards overrating others or if you are less talented but that only makes your achievements more impressive.

The scare quotes are because it seems to be assumed that anyone who has an accomplishment deserves it. Some people must luck out. If we're not going to just reject the notion of deserving entirely there must be some people who don't deserve their accomplishments and as a result feel like they don't deserve their accomplishments. Additionally, feeling like you don't deserve your accomplishment, even if most people feel like they do, doesn't mean you're pathological. People have different standards for considering themselves deserving. Some are way off one end of the bell curve but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong. When you consider yourself competent or deserving is a personal judgement. There's nothing inconsistent in an above average or even elite person thinking they are incompetent.