What if it’s not imposter syndrome?

What if you’re just not any good?

I’ve written about imposter syndrome before, but never like this.

Imposter syndrome is that nagging feeling that you don’t deserve the success that you’ve earned.

You’re a fraud. Soon, everyone will find out how unqualified you are. You didn’t earn that job; it was given to you by accident. You didn’t earn that 4.0; your professors were just being lenient. You’re not a good writer; that viral article was an accident. You don’t really know how to be a software engineer; you’re relying too much on libraries and frameworks. Copy, paste. Copy, paste.

The problem with imposter syndrome is that no matter how much we accomplish, we sometimes lose the ability to reason with ourselves.

First, understand that there are 4 stages of learning.

1. I’m excited to learn! I’m going to be the best at this.
2. OMG. This is hard. But hey, I’ll try my best.
3. I suck at this. I don’t think I’ll ever get any better.
4. Oh, wait. I think I got it.

After stage 4, we get reinvigorated, and the cycle repeats.