I ask this question because sometimes I can get discouraged due to me not fully understanding a concept and it not sticking. I also worry because sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the complexity of some applications I see and don’t see how I’d manage to get to that expertise. I’m currently a computer science major, and I’m in my 2nd year of college and while I learned a tremendous amount of information, I’m still not comfortable with my abilities to develop an sustainable application or anything major for that matter.
Does everyone have these thoughts or is it just me?
It is definitely not just you. Even at my work where there are extremely capable engineers, there is a common experience of what we call “imposter syndrome” - a fear of everyone discovering that you are an imposter who does not belong.
The reality is that we all have things to learn. No one person fully understands a sufficiently complex system. You have to peel back the layers and grow your understanding.
It is cliche, but true: Rome was not built in a day. Systems grow in complexity over time and managing (and trying to reduce) that complexity is part of the job.
While learning you will have to encounter ideas several times before you start really getting the hang of it. Sometimes it will stick the first time, but expect to need a bit of repetition. Your mind is building connections you need to help reinforce what you are learning to and this can take time. Be patient with yourself and persevere. The one that completes his journey is the one who did not give up!
If it helps, look backwards to remember how much progress you have made. The first time you saw a “Hello World” program it was a strange and new thing. Now it seems so trivial. Take comfort in realizing that you have come farther than you probably realized.
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Hi,
I deeply have that impostor syndrome myself.
Yet another part of me is opposed to that idea.
“If they did it, why not me?”
There are ton of things I do not feel comfortable with.
I know I don’t know, but I know I’ll eventually overcome it.
When I talk with HR I often feel like I should know too many things to get into the field. I believe they want me to be a Senior Junior of some sort.
I’m just a guy who got trained, practice and knows quite some bits of many things. Yet I know I’m nor genius neither omniscient. I would definitely love to get into a team of seasoned devs and discuss with them to solve issues and learn further. “Is that too much to ask ?” I often get to think.
Now personal thoughts. Often when you swim in these fields, there are a ton of capable people who use terms you don’t know and may lead you to feel a bit dumb.
Often those complicated things are not always that much complicated once you understand what it hides.
To me this is often a vocabulary issue.
For instance I once read a book about Selenium that explained something with Fluent Interfaces. Never heard of it before. I did try to look it up and I could not understand the different things I did read. Until you read to that golden nugget that rephrase things simply and clearly and your eyes open on how simple it is. And this BTW what I find in Mosh courses and why I belong here.
I wish you a lot of luck and courage to pursue.
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Imagine yourself like a snowball rolling down a mountain. The further you roll down the mountain the more potential you have to gather snow and increase your size. Along the way you will hit some rocks and trees and lose some snow.
The last post left off on hitting objects so thought I should mention that the idea is to keep rolling. I don’t know why but this made me start laughing hysterically.
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