Imposter Syndrome is rife in the tech industry. You might have heard the term.
It’s that feeling when you start a new job, and the core technology is something that you can’t even pronounce, let alone use. Or — just when you feel nicely established — a colleague drops a mysterious Three Letter Acronym into a conversation, to which you can only nod your head, secretly hoping that’s the correct response.
It’s the little moments, like when someone casually informs you that middle-click opens a new tab in your web browser. And wait … did you just date yourself by calling it a “web browser”?
Over time, this can all add up, and become a serious problem. Imposter Syndrome can shake — or even shatter — someone’s confidence. People talk about suffering from bouts of stress and depression, purely because they felt they didn’t measure up to some impossible standard.
There have been blogs, articles, and even entire books written about the subject. Some talk about how to overcome it. Some say that you shouldn’t overcome it. Some even doubt that it exists.
From my own experience, I know that last point isn’t true — Imposter Syndrome is alive and well. I’ve been a software developer for a number of years. Throughout that whole time, I’ve felt like a complete phony, or fraud, or — yes — imposter.
Confession time.
For me, the root-cause is that I’m not a true lover of technology. I’ve spent big chunks of my career dreaming the computer away. Hardware has always seemed alien. Gadgets and gizmos leave me feeling cold. That’s quite a difficult thing to admit — I’m talking about the fun stuff, which seems to come so naturally to others.
Sure, I love solving puzzles, and understanding problems, and even refactoring the Legacy-est of Legacy Code. I can happily talk shop to another developer for hours … all the while secretly knowing that they could stump me at any minute.
Here’s the thing though — having looked around, and done some reading on the subject, I’ve come to realise that it’s not just me. Everyone in the technology industry (and probably beyond) has their own blind spots — the gaps in their knowledge that make them feel like a fraud.
Which brings me to the aim of this blog: finding a way to fill these blind spots. On a personal level, this is about learning some Probably-Basic-But-To-Me-Mysterious parts of technology. It’s about finding ways to make the so-called ‘fun’ bits actually fun.
In a deeper sense, I guess it’s about learning how to learn. If that’s something that interests you, please join me.