6 ms·
Impostoritis: A Lifelong, but Treatable, Condition
- hadees 12y agoI don't think it's just a woman's issue. I've struggled with this myself until recently when I got 3 out of the 4 jobs I applied to a couple weeks after getting laid off.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- peralt 12y agoIt's not just a women's issue but in a male dominated field it's good to hear from a female perspective on the matter.
- gcb0 12y agoYep. impostor syndrome never was associated with gender. She just picked the low hanging fruit. Impostor syndrome applies to everyone who still lacks close friends in a particular social occasion. So it's very common on all steam folks since most have social anxiety, hence take a long time to make close friends.
- gopher1 12y agoCan you elaborate on the relation between imposter syndrome and lacking close friends?
- Patrick_Devine 12y agoI agree, and I think it's related to the Dunning Kruger effect. The more you know, the more you realize all the things which you don't know. There's also a bit of a vicious feedback loop; often people are unwilling to admit that they don't know something because they don't want to appear weak. But until they admit it, they'll always be deficient in that subject.
- Frostine 12y agoPerhaps more attention should be given to the fact that men feel this way as well. Women are often told they don't fare as well because they are not as assertive or confident as men. Imposteritis then introduces feelings of guilt in women for not feeling confident like they are "supposed" to and the way they are told that men do. Whether men feel that way or not should perhaps be addressed more frequently.
- gcb0 12y agoHer department would get more varied backgrounds if she did her job and improved teaching and update the curriculum instead of doing the campus therapist job. All the smart people, whatever the gender, are probably applying elsewhere.
- CreRecombinase 12y agoWhat makes you qualified to say that? You think smart people aren't applying to Harvey Mudd?
- s_dev 12y agoWhy does it seem like STEM grads disproportionately suffer more from impostor syndrome while business grads seem to disproportionately suffer less?
- zwieback 12y agoProbably the nature of the work - it's easier to feel like an impostor if success is primarily defined by detailed knowledge of the field. I suspect that in the business field you can't succeed unless you're comfortable portraying incomplete or speculative information as fact. Just guessing, though.
- cryoshon 12y agoPart of working in science is knowing that you only know a tiny sliver of your field. It's easy to get the idea that everyone else knows vastly more than you do.