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Imposter syndrome is when people are unable to internalize their accomplishments despite external evidence of their competence.

The phenomenon is highly common among high-achievers which is why Popova references it.




The problem is that, from the inside, imposter syndrome feels like an accurate, negative self assessment. Writing off the latter as the former is not the right way to go; for every person who's wrong in that direction, there's probably another who's right in the same direction.

What we should be doing is teaching people how to make well-calibrated self-assessments, not repeat the ridiculous line that "lol no one knows what they're doing, everything's guesswork". We should teach people how spot the evidence of success that they miss -- but also the evidence of failure.




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