Why Do So Many Software Developers Have Imposter Syndrome?

In this video, I’m going to talk about imposter syndrome. What it is, why so many software developers have it, including me, and how I’ve learned to deal with it.

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- Yoriz
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- Kit Hygh
- Alexander Milden
- Bean

🔖 Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:54 What is imposter syndrome?
2:46 Why is imposter syndrome so common among software developers?
4:59 #1 Use yourself as a yardstick, not others
6:45 #2 View everything you do as a learning process
7:47 #3 Remove emotion
9:23 Outro

#arjancodes #softwaredesign #python

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[JeremyLangdon]

Your point about impostor syndrome increasing with knowledge reminds me of the Dunning-Kruger effect, where the smarter someone is, the more likely they are to underestimate their abilities. I guess growing expertise can lead to more self-doubt… it’s important to ignore that! On the flip side, some humility is good, though, as it helps avoid coming across as cocky.

[andrewmasp]

Appreciate you sharing this with us. I think more of this, being vulnerable and letting your followers know the challenges you face .. we face .. is helpful in letting us all know we aren't alone. Thank you.

[klmcwhirter]

Yes, we all have felt like we may be stretching ourselves a little too much and that the confidence people have in us may not be warranted.

But, after much introspective over the years I realized that this is an indicator of:
* I care about the quality of my work and my customer's and teammate's perception of my work
* humility - it is really important to maintain a "healthy" level of humility in order to make sure you are taking advantage of all the creative ideas from the people around you - even from your clients!

Of course, all of the forces - including the ones you mentioned - need to be balanced. And that, in and of itself, is a learned skill; a difficult gut-wrenching at times process to acquire that skill.

But it is so worth it. I remember the first time I was thanked for solving a problem in software that was causing productivity issues for someone. The look in their eyes, the amount of gratitude and appreciation I saw - that is the motivating reason behind why I continued to work so hard throughout my career.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! For having the courage to address topics like this. It is super hard to get started in this career path.

And this is one of the reasons why some people (not just developers) give up on themselves too soon.

[jasonstewart]

Hey, thanks. I appreciate the perspective you brought to the issue of feeling like an imposter. I'm in my 50s and I restarted working as a software developer after 20 years not doing software and I felt such a huge gap between me and the young guys I worked with. Being able to talk with them about it informally helped a lot. We would shoot the shit before our morning standup and often we'd share the same feelings about having zero clue about the new project and how it was a huge relief to learn everyone was as confused as everyone else. After a while we thought to start an "Imposters Club" - we never really started it but it was a good joke to ease tension.

[Allanon-]

The best lessons I’ve learned in life was during or after failure in something. But as a society failure is seen as a bad thing, so a subtle but powerful misunderstanding happens: you should never fail. And that is just wrong.
At least for me seeing failure in a different light help me to manage the imposter in me 😊

[malik_fa]

Thanks. I diagnosed my big issue today. This video will be a move forward for me. 💌

[yickysan]

That's fine Arjan but I'm a proper fraud.😂😂😂

[c.michaelfisher]

*Cheers*! Always good to hear when other's journey was fraught with similar worries and concerns!

[nordexo]

Thank you for telling your story sharing your experiences assuring others (me) with similar thoughts are not alone

[reubenalexander]

Thanks a ton for this video, Arjan! After a tough week, the imposter syndrome has been wreaking havoc on the old brain. It's always refreshing to see/hear some simple advice that helps one step back, recalibrate a little, take a deep breath, and jump back in.

[lunalect]

One thing that even I can’t take away from myself is that I love learning and I love teaching and helping others with their growth journey. I know I don’t know everything, and my code feels really sloppy sometimes, but I will learn and get better in the process.

[gkosto]

I really have to thank you. You are a good man

[devanshkanda]

Oh man i was not expecting this video to drop. Thank you arjan, as a developer i totally resonate with you. I recently joined as an intern and i was totally drown feeling like imposter. You said very accurate that its important to see that feeling of discomfort as learning opportunity else that will sabotage our confidence. Comparison is a thief of joy. Thanks again for addressing this. I am sure so many people really wanted this video. ❤

[alexanderzikal]

Happy Birthday Arjan! Believe me, You are young ^ ^. Best regards from Austria.

[diya.codes]

Really good video, I have been always struggling with it, since around me there are a lot of knowledgable people. Hope you make similar soft-skills oriented videos in the future

[jamesmills]

The single best method I have for overcoming impostor syndrome is just focusing on what needs to be done. Discover a problem. Break the problem into solvable steps. If a step you're unclear about the approach, ask for advice. Execute the steps. Execution doesnt need to be perfect because no company wants perfection, they want completion. You cant be a impostor if you know how to solve problems

[sergioamador]

I agree that it's about work and the journey.
My teams first data science/NLP project was doomed to not give good predictions from the beginning, since the data set lack on quantity and quality.
Still we continued on and we learned so much about related topics and answered foundational questions that lead us to newer use cases that, when we changed the scope of our project and mined a way larger and higher quality data set, and now our current model is having an good performance and all within our expectations.
All the past failures had me thinking that I wasn't good enough for the task. But now we created a new business unit where the products we are developing have at heart our models.

[JustLikeBuildingThings]

YOU'RE MY HERO!!!

Only kidding, good video - Have suffered with this for a long while, and you can let it run away and send you down very dark paths. For those that suffer with this it's good to recognise there has been research done around this, and if you're suffering imposter syndrome you're actually more likely to be a very high performer and it also shows you care which is positive :)

[todd.mitchell]

Beginners, by Tom Vanderbilt, is a great book for riding this feeling to success.

[UNgineering]

I always compare myself to other people, and as long as there is someone worse, I know I have work to do!