How to Absolutely Slay Imposter Syndrome

Laurie Gray
Jul 28, 2017 · 4 min read
We’ve all been there

Why is learning to code so frustrating? In fact, why is it still frustrating when you already know ‘how to code’? To top that off, why do so many people feel like frauds when they can code really well (know as Imposter Syndrome)? I would like to give my answer and hopefully help you in the process of your coding career.

Firstly, who am I? Well I am an iOS developer and I Love coding, but I’ve also done a lot of teaching in my lifetime; young and old and I can safely say that it is the same issues that plague many types of career that involve intense learning and that issue is in fact learning. Stay with me, I promise you’re going to find this really helpful even if you’re not a programmer.


We’ve overcomplicated learning with learning styles, theories on learning, secrets to learning FASTER, BETTER, LONGER…(postmodernists will even ask: ‘What even is learning?’) Whatever.
The truth is we all learn the same way: by doing.

You can watch a zillion tutorials, read a million lines of code and not make a damn thing.

Here is the crux of my argument before I write more:

There is an enormous difference between ‘Learning’ and ‘Learned’


There is a lot to learn as a developer; tonnes of frameworks, languages, patterns etc. However, there is a tonne to learn in any career (especially Music where I came from). Why is it so frustrating with programming though? I never met a single musician with Imposter Syndrome in my life. I believe the answer is we are eternally learning, but very little is ever truly learned.

When you’re learning a new language, you kind of have to ‘run with it’. If you were to take every facet of the language into consideration before writing any code you would never get anything done. You’ll probably learn as you go when you attack new frameworks, libraries and other people’s code. The language will inevitably then evolve to version x, the framework will change and adapt, you’ll still only know about 50% of that framework, but you’ll know enough. Sound familiar? It’s hard work.

When I did music, I ‘knew’ a piece when I could play it literally blindfolded. I listened to it hundreds of times, practiced ever note, every gap, every melody hidden in the depths of the piece until I could just about sing every part separately. There were pieces and tools I needed to be able to use in my day-to-day life, to be familiar with, but there were things I absolutely needed to know. I knew what those were and made sure I knew them.

So what’s my point? If you don’t know something, you just google it, right? Well, if you have to google it, then yes, clearly you don’t know it.

That is okay!

There are literally millions of things you need to be familiar enough with to know how to solve the problem. Google is amazing and has completely changed how we get access to information. But Google won’t do much for your confidence, imposter syndrome awaits around that corner for sure. However, if you realise:

‘I need to be familiar and be able to find solutions to these things, but I’m going to make sure I really know just about everything about this particular thing’

Then you realise something totally liberating:

‘I don’t actually need to know this stuff. I don’t need to be a human sponge, or a genius. I can find that information at will. But I do know this stuff, really well!

Freedom alert

So when have you actually went from ‘learning’ something to ‘learned’? The answer is so simple: when you can recall it at will. That may be CoreData and working with it freely, it might be Chopin’s Nocturne in C#. It doesn’t matter. Note-for-note, letter-by-letter recollection.

Wait, I don’t know everything about Core Data (insert desired thing here). There are bits I don’t understand or remember.

TADA! You’ve just realised you have a weakness in something you know. That weakness calls for a cure. Practice. Musical practice is focussing specifically on those very weaknesses and, arguably, every kind of practice should be the same. It is also known as ‘deliberate practice’ where you will work on something very small and super-specific and focus on it, focus on it until you crush it like the lazerbeam slaying unicorn you are!

By realising you do know something really well, but there are weaknesses, then you are free to work on those and master something, no matter how small.

Mastery brings joy and fulfilment; a sense of craftsmanship. Now you can be comfortable enough in the other things you need to be ‘constantly learning’ as they change and grow and in order to keep up with the times, but you can be super good at the things you love and want to focus on.

Goodbye feelings of fraud and imposter syndrome.

https://youtu.be/Xq-BDFcWN0k

Laurie Gray

Written by

iOS Developer, raywenderlich.com iOS Video Instructor Team Member & Udemy Instructor — Also known as a ‘Total Learn-o-holic’.

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