i wonder if this is somewhat a west coast versus everywhere else work culture thing?
like, the west coast is very into the term "impostor syndrome". fuckin everybody talks about their impostor-syndrome-y feelings, from super-senior people on down to random grunt engineers. you get job rejections that are softened with "but we still think you seemed like a really cool dude" (not making that up). people can be weirdly passive-aggressive or bizarrely deferential relative to other places i've lived. everyone wants to "include" everyone but with the minimum fuss possible.
like, for me personally—barring a few hiccups, i've never felt like i didn't "belong" as much as the next guy where i work (and, of course, they're all guys). which is nice, and fortunate! but it then makes me irritated when i go to a meetup group or a meeting or whatever, and i'm talking about how i'm not sure how to take charge on a particular project or whatever, and the response i get back is "oh that's just impostor syndrome!" and other vague assurances. my problem isn't that i'm not believing in myself enough, it's that i have a specific problem and i'm asking if there's resources available to handle it. if the answer is "i dunno" or "uhhh just try some stuff" or "just tough it out", then i'd rather it just be said that way, instead of wrapping it in this weird diagnostic language that doesn't really apply to my situation.
i'm glad the term impostor syndrome has helped people! if people are able to become more confident in their work, by identifying that as the root cause, then that's rad. but from where i'm standing, it feels like the usage creep has tilted waaaay in the other direction, i hear it like every other day, mentees use the word "impostor syndrome" to describe situations that are actually your team is just fucked up, and i wish at least people would say "it could be impostor syndrome OR it could be that this is just confusing/crazy/whatever for unreasonable reasons" and let people figure out on their own if it's an occasion for working on yourself vs trying to pin down what's making you queasy.
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Date: 2019-02-04 11:08 pm (UTC)like, the west coast is very into the term "impostor syndrome". fuckin everybody talks about their impostor-syndrome-y feelings, from super-senior people on down to random grunt engineers. you get job rejections that are softened with "but we still think you seemed like a really cool dude" (not making that up). people can be weirdly passive-aggressive or bizarrely deferential relative to other places i've lived. everyone wants to "include" everyone but with the minimum fuss possible.
like, for me personally—barring a few hiccups, i've never felt like i didn't "belong" as much as the next guy where i work (and, of course, they're all guys). which is nice, and fortunate! but it then makes me irritated when i go to a meetup group or a meeting or whatever, and i'm talking about how i'm not sure how to take charge on a particular project or whatever, and the response i get back is "oh that's just impostor syndrome!" and other vague assurances. my problem isn't that i'm not believing in myself enough, it's that i have a specific problem and i'm asking if there's resources available to handle it. if the answer is "i dunno" or "uhhh just try some stuff" or "just tough it out", then i'd rather it just be said that way, instead of wrapping it in this weird diagnostic language that doesn't really apply to my situation.
i'm glad the term impostor syndrome has helped people! if people are able to become more confident in their work, by identifying that as the root cause, then that's rad. but from where i'm standing, it feels like the usage creep has tilted waaaay in the other direction, i hear it like every other day, mentees use the word "impostor syndrome" to describe situations that are actually your team is just fucked up, and i wish at least people would say "it could be impostor syndrome OR it could be that this is just confusing/crazy/whatever for unreasonable reasons" and let people figure out on their own if it's an occasion for working on yourself vs trying to pin down what's making you queasy.