You don’t have Impostor Syndrome

And neither do I anymore

A couple days ago, this tweet was brought to my attention, and I noticed an unfortunate resemblance to a diagram I made for one of my most popular posts, Overcoming Impostor Syndrome.

It’s not the copying of my diagram that bothers me. I’ve seen my diagram used in other posts and presentations, and it has even been cited in print, though usually with the courtesy of attribution. I have received countless comments that the diagram helped people grasp what they previously could feel but not express, and that makes me happy regardless of whether I get credit or not.

However, changing my diagram and labelling it as: This is what Impostor Syndrome is, grossly distorts my original message, and that ticks me off. Not to mention making it look like an ad for anti-virus software circa 2002.

So I’ve made a new diagram.

Learning to program is hard, as is learning to do anything worthwhile when you’re just starting out. Freaking out about not knowing anything is totally normal, and every budding programmer feels overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of all that they don’t know.

This is not Impostor Syndrome, this is Reality.

The panic that comes from the feeling of not knowing enough, and others will find out, is accurate, if, in fact, you don’t know.

I’ve certainly felt that over and over again. Even after ostensibly having years of programming experience, there have been many times when I realized I had no idea how to do a particular task I was assigned, and would go into a panic. But those times were not me suffering from Impostor Syndrome. I really did not know how to do it, and realizing that with an…