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Impostor Syndrome

zachleat
September 28, 2013

Impostor Syndrome

Talk given at Barcamp Omaha 2013.

zachleat

September 28, 2013
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Transcript

  1. IMPOSTOR
    SYNDROME

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  2. @zachleat
    http://zachleat.com
    Filament Group

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  3. http://nebraskajs.com
    @nebraskajs

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  4. IMPOSTOR
    SYNDROME

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  5. People with Impostor Syndrome are
    unable to internalize their
    accomplishments […] convinced that
    they are frauds and do not deserve
    the success they have achieved.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

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  7. First off,
    before I get too far,
    I should say—

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  8. I’m not the most qualified
    person to give this talk.

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  9. I’m not the most qualified person
    speaking at this conference.

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  10. No one invited me to speak.

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  11. I’m not a professionally
    trained speaker.

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  12. I hope no one finds out that I’m
    faking it.

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  13. Actually—now that I think about it—
    I’ve given talks at conferences before.

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  14. People that I respect seemed to like them.

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  16. Surely I’m more of a
    con-artist
    than a public speaker.

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  17. I’m probably not qualified enough
    to speak at any conference.

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  18. Oh, God—I’m sure I shouldn’t
    have talked at those meetups.

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  19. Meetups have Q&A—

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  20. —it’s harder to fool people
    during Q&A.

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  21. There will not be Q&A
    after this talk.

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  22. Okay, to be safe I just won’t
    do any more speaking.

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  23. Maybe I should have written a blog
    post on this topic instead.

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  24. It’s safer on my blog. I can edit
    and proofread and rewrite.

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  25. No one will know that I
    make mistakes.

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  26. But—my blog post ideas feel
    unoriginal and derivative.

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  27. and the Web is
    huge.

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  28. My post has to compete with
    the rest of the world?

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  29. No one is going to read it.

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  30. There are far better
    writers.

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  31. Sure, I’ve written a few posts that people seemed to like.

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  32. My personal web site has had over 1.3M page views.

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  33. I’ve convinced almost
    6,000 people to subscribe
    to my blog.

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  34. Surely I’ve pulled the wool
    over their eyes.

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  35. Okay, to be safe I just won’t
    do any more speaking or
    blogging.

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  36. Maybe I’ll stick to tweeting
    instead.

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  37. Twitter is ephemeral.

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  38. The half life for mistakes is
    about 20 minutes.

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  39. Sure, I’ve posted a few good tweets.

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  40. I’ve convinced a few people to follow me.

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  41. I basically got my job through Twitter.

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  42. But maybe it’s easier to
    fool people on Twitter.

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  43. If Justin Bieber can get 45M
    followers, the bar must be
    pretty low.

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  44. My followers probably have
    me on Twitter probation.

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  45. I’m sure my next tweet
    will get me unfollowed.

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  46. “It's better to keep your
    mouth shut and appear
    stupid than open it and
    remove all doubt.”

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  47. “It's better to keep your
    mouth shut and appear
    stupid than open it and
    remove all doubt.”
    —Mark Twain

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  48. Okay, to be safe I won’t
    speak or blog or tweet.

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  49. To beat Impostor Syndrome,
    I can stop participating.

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  50. But that certainly won’t
    make me happy.

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  51. I need to create
    to feel alive.

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  52. The best way to beat
    Impostor Syndrome is
    to participate.

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  53. Encourage other people.

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  54. Accept encouragement
    from others.

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  55. Share what you know.

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  56. http://www.cyclonelife.net/2013/07/crushing-the-impostor-syndrome/

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  57. Share what you don’t know.

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  58. “I have written eleven books, but
    each time I think ‘Uh oh, they’re
    going to find out now. I’ve run a
    game on everybody, and they’re
    going to find out.”
    —Maya Angelou

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  59. Impostor syndrome
    doesn’t go away.

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  60. But if we recognize it,
    we can begin to deal with it.

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  61. Thank you.

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  62. @zachleat
    http://zachleat.com

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