I’ll tell you a secret. If you just show up and do things without fucking up most of the time, they’ll never know you’re an imposter. Like fools, they’ll attribute your mistakes to human error and not being incompetent. Just because you show up reliably and do halfway decent work the majority of the time. The absolute imbeciles.
Inherent in the belief that people are going to figure out that you are actually a fraud, and really bad at something, is the implicit idea that all those other people are actually competent and good at stuff themselves.
Here’s the thing - most of them probably aren’t. The older I get (mid 40s now…) the more I realize that incompetence is far more widespread than I used to think it was.
This is not to give anyone an inflated idea of their own ability or intelligence, including myself! It’s just a reminder that, in most situations, the people whose judgment you are worried about are probably just as bad off as you are… and are probably worse!
lol they’ll believe anything. I usually just tell them I don’t know and that I’ll figure it out and learn it in the background, and they don’t even care as long as I deliver it, those suckers.
The CIA released a guide once in how to subtly resist a hostile government from the inside, in a corporate setting. It said things like “Always set a follow-up meeting to every meeting”, “Never commit to anything”, and “Reject everything you’re asked to review with vague comments”. It was practically a perfect portrait of my boss at my last company, who was lauded as excellent by management.
It got me thinking: If he was considered indispensable while basically following a guide on destroying the company to the letter, then how bad could I ever be?
This is going to sound fucked up, but a few years ago I was really struggling with a job and there was immense pressure for me to quit.
At the lowest of my lows, I was browsing the internet and stumbled upon some incompetent fuckery shit that Trump pulled off and immediately understood his appeal to people: if he can fuck up so obviously and on a large scale and still show his face, why can’t I?
I’ll tell you a secret. If you just show up and do things without fucking up most of the time, they’ll never know you’re an imposter. Like fools, they’ll attribute your mistakes to human error and not being incompetent. Just because you show up reliably and do halfway decent work the majority of the time. The absolute imbeciles.
There’s also the flip side of imposter syndrome.
Inherent in the belief that people are going to figure out that you are actually a fraud, and really bad at something, is the implicit idea that all those other people are actually competent and good at stuff themselves.
Here’s the thing - most of them probably aren’t. The older I get (mid 40s now…) the more I realize that incompetence is far more widespread than I used to think it was.
This is not to give anyone an inflated idea of their own ability or intelligence, including myself! It’s just a reminder that, in most situations, the people whose judgment you are worried about are probably just as bad off as you are… and are probably worse!
That’s basically how I got over the imposter syndrome.
lol they’ll believe anything. I usually just tell them I don’t know and that I’ll figure it out and learn it in the background, and they don’t even care as long as I deliver it, those suckers.
Half the job is just showing up and telling your boss that things are on track and that you will take care of it.
If you ever feel nervous before a progress meeting, remember this.
The CIA released a guide once in how to subtly resist a hostile government from the inside, in a corporate setting. It said things like “Always set a follow-up meeting to every meeting”, “Never commit to anything”, and “Reject everything you’re asked to review with vague comments”. It was practically a perfect portrait of my boss at my last company, who was lauded as excellent by management.
It got me thinking: If he was considered indispensable while basically following a guide on destroying the company to the letter, then how bad could I ever be?
This is going to sound fucked up, but a few years ago I was really struggling with a job and there was immense pressure for me to quit.
At the lowest of my lows, I was browsing the internet and stumbled upon some incompetent fuckery shit that Trump pulled off and immediately understood his appeal to people: if he can fuck up so obviously and on a large scale and still show his face, why can’t I?
Yeah but I hate showing up, and doing things…
And the possibility of fucking up is pretty much the root of my concern.
Not sure how this helps.
Bold of you to assume I won’t fuck everything up all of the time