The Pattern #2 - Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome - “The condition of feeling anxious and not experiencing success internally, despite being high-performing in external, objective ways. Often results in people feeling like ‘a fraud’ and doubting their abilities.”

I had just started a new job in tech and I was starting to feel this sense of impending doom. That I was going to be exposed as a fraud in a matter of weeks, no, days.

I knew I was experiencing imposter syndrome.

In some ways, I thought because I was already aware of the concept, it wouldn’t affect me.

Alas dread it, run from it, imposter syndrome arrived all the same. Which got me to thinking…

Why does imposter syndrome occur?

The root causes of imposter syndrome is something that is deeply intertwined with someone’s personal history.

Its likely to show up if someone ties their self worth to what they know and/or how they perform i.e. doing well academically and getting things right

Performance and knowledge. This felt like the crux of the problem.

Rumsfeldian knowledge refers to a way of categorizing knowledge into three types, based on a famous quote.

Here's a simple explanation:

1. Known Knowns

   • Definition: Things we know that we know

   • Example: You know how to use Amazon S3 to store and retrieve data.

2. Known Unknowns

   • Definition: Things we know that we don’t know

   • Example: You’re aware of AWS Lambda's existence but know that you don’t know how to set it up

3. Unknown Unknowns

   • Definition: Things we don’t know that we don’t know

   • Example: There might be a new AWS service that has just been launched, and you’re completely unaware of it. Because you don’t know about this new service, you can’t consider its potential benefits or how it might solve problems you didn't realize you had.

Representing this visually, inside the circles was my knowledge and outside of it was knowledge I didn’t have. As I gained experience and my knowledge expanded over time so too did the “known unknowns”. The challenge for me was the number of "known unknowns" and the rate at which I was converting those known unknowns into knowledge.

Rumsfeldian knowledge visual

So what to do when imposter syndrome strikes?

In short, I had to challenge the problematic thinking patterns and beliefs.

To tackle the perceived subpar performance I had to get feedback and reflect.

To overcome the knowledge gap I had to mentor and grow.

Feedback

The most objective way I kept my imposter syndrome in check was getting regular feedback from my colleagues.

It gave me an understanding of how I was being perceived by others and as a result I had a more complete picture of where I stood with my strengths and weaknesses.

Reflect

Reflecting on past achievements, no matter how small, helped me to realize that I had a body of work that flew in the face of the feelings I was experiencing.

Completed a ticket? That was a win. Unblocked a colleague? That was a win.

The more I started to recognise those wins as wins, the more the feeling of being an imposter waned.

Mentor

It was hard for me to realize how far I had come as I was always looking at how far I had to go.

Particularly as I had transitioned from a different career path and felt like I should have already known concepts x, y and z.

I found that mentoring tech aspirants provided a good baseline for gauging the knowledge I had gained, as I saw my past self in my mentees doubts and frustrations.

Grow

The reality is tech is a continuously evolving space.

It’s what attracted me in the first place.

There will always be “known unknowns” and to survive and thrive subsequently requires the adoption of a growth mindset. Once I became comfortable with that idea and adopted that mindset the symptoms started to fade.

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What are your tips on dealing with imposter syndrome?

I’d be interested to hear your experiences in dealing with imposter syndrome, so comment down below.

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Plugs

A collection of interesting links I’ve found from trawling the internet

Al-Baqarah - One of my hobbies is finding new recitations. Beautiful recitation by Abdulrahman Almajed

Google Graveyard - A graveyard for all of the Google products that have been (killed) shutdown over the years

How I Made $10m - An Ultimate Guide to Online Courses - Ali Abdaal walking through how to create an online course, as well as what the numbers can look like.

IDX - New online IDE by Google that comes with AI features

Klack - Mechanical keyboard sounds for your Mac. Perfect for those who don’t want to spend $$$ on actual mechanical keyboards

Secrets of the Surahs - New lecture series by Sheikh Mostafa Shaibani on the secrets of the surahs in the Quran. Incredibly insightful.