Impostor Syndrome

Talk given at Barcamp Omaha 2013.

1. IMPOSTOR SYNDROME
2. @zachleat http://zachleat.com Filament Group
3. http://nebraskajs.com @nebraskajs
4. IMPOSTOR SYNDROME
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
7. First off, before I get too far, I should say—
8. I’m not the most qualified person to give this talk.
9. I’m not the most qualified person speaking at this conference.
10. No one invited me to speak.
11. I’m not a professionally trained speaker.
12. I hope no one finds out that I’m faking it.
13. Actually—now that I think about it— I’ve given talks at conferences before.
14. People that I respect seemed to like them.
16. Surely I’m more of a con-artist than a public speaker.
17. I’m probably not qualified enough to speak at any conference.
18. Oh, God—I’m sure I shouldn’t have talked at those meetups.
19. Meetups have Q&A—
20. —it’s harder to fool people during Q&A.
21. There will not be Q&A after this talk.
22. Okay, to be safe I just won’t do any more speaking.
23. Maybe I should have written a blog post on this topic instead.
24. It’s safer on my blog. I can edit and proofread and rewrite.
25. No one will know that I make mistakes.
26. But—my blog post ideas feel unoriginal and derivative.
27. and the Web is huge.
28. My post has to compete with the rest of the world?
29. No one is going to read it.
30. There are far better writers.
31. Sure, I’ve written a few posts that people seemed to like.
32. My personal web site has had over 1.3M page views.
33. I’ve convinced almost 6,000 people to subscribe to my blog.
34. Surely I’ve pulled the wool over their eyes.
35. Okay, to be safe I just won’t do any more speaking or blogging.
36. Maybe I’ll stick to tweeting instead.
37. Twitter is ephemeral.
38. The half life for mistakes is about 20 minutes.
39. Sure, I’ve posted a few good tweets.
40. I’ve convinced a few people to follow me.
41. I basically got my job through Twitter.
42. But maybe it’s easier to fool people on Twitter.
43. If Justin Bieber can get 45M followers, the bar must be pretty low.
44. My followers probably have me on Twitter probation.
45. I’m sure my next tweet will get me unfollowed.
46. “It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.”
47. “It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.” —Mark Twain
48. Okay, to be safe I won’t speak or blog or tweet.
49. To beat Impostor Syndrome, I can stop participating.
50. But that certainly won’t make me happy.
51. I need to create to feel alive.
52. The best way to beat Impostor Syndrome is to participate.
53. Encourage other people.
54. Accept encouragement from others.
55. Share what you know.
56. http://www.cyclonelife.net/2013/07/crushing-the-impostor-syndrome/
57. Share what you don’t know.
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
59. Impostor syndrome doesn’t go away.
60. But if we recognize it, we can begin to deal with it.
61. Thank you.
62. @zachleat http://zachleat.com