Discussion on:

How consultants can deal with the Impostor syndrome

Perhaps one of the contributing factors to feeling like a fake is actually being one. Trying to project an image (we call that marketing) can easily create a false impression. Perhaps another tip here is to get real -- be the real you, warts and all. Might be harder to sell, but you'll be happier with the result.

there's a discourse that demands wiz-kids.
We don't want a by-drudgery-to-the-stars consultant, we want a by-broomstick-to-the-stars consultant, because they don't prescribe for us to do so much hard work with our flaws

Also, this happens to muscicians and other artists enormously. Coke is for making them feel that they are as they always feel they should be, but aren't.

The artist (and sometimes the consultant) is supposed to be great in one or a few areas. What they don't understand is that greatness in one area often depletes another -- thus performers of every ilk include some of the worst-adjusted people in the world.

Then there's the other problem of not even being able to sustain greatness in one area all the time. Depressing.

Clients aren't worried about your mental health, though -- they just want what you can give them.

"Come in here, Dear boy, have a cigar.
You're gonna go far"

(As, otherwise we'd have to be something less than geniuses for having this problem you solved in the first place)
It's definitely nice to glorify someone if it also diminishes the threat to one's own face, however misconstrued.

Praise can be the perfect poison. It tempts the one praised to forget that they're just people like any other. And if one builds one's self-worth upon the praise of others then that's almost as bad as being a perfectionist. Cold turkey and crash'n'burn ahead, sure enough.

Perfectionism is another way of not assessing one's own worth in a useful way.
It's like Bergenfx said, knowing one's self is key... only problem is that the guy in the mirror is always putting on a show, never keeping it real.

No substitute for building something to quite your doubts

Imposter syndrome is a real and difficult thing. I had forgotten about it, but I tend to suffer from it all the time!

I disagree that one should 'get real'. After all one IS real, even when faking it. That's part of the person. As for showing your warts, well, heck man if that were a good thing I wouldn't pluck the hairs that insist on growing out of my chin ever since I hit 60 and it hit back.
Everyone is real and Everyone is faking it til they make it. Get used to it. It's not like when I started programming in 1960 at the age of 12 (high school grad / legally emancipated / working for big blue). Things didn't change as fast as they do now and were not as buggy (we only had 'real bugs' to worry about and that damned 'ctrl-z'.

I have my leads and managers practice facilitating meetings, and I have the newer folks send emails to me so I can review them before sending them to the stakeholders. If I teach these jr ppl mgrs how to display their (and their teams) best side, you'd call that lying or being a fake, huh.

I call it keeping the energy and positive spirit 'up'.

If you go around NOT blowing your own horn, you lose out on the better world there is out there. If you have to play a cd of trumpet songs until you can really play your own, so be it. Frankly I've know this all my life: the world is mediocre during its best times. It doesn't take much to be successful in this world. So FAKE IT TILL YA MAKE IT.
BELIEVE in yourself. Don't lie to anyone. If they ask you 'can you do this' you say 'yes', and I'll get back to you when I'm ready to prove that.... give a deadline you can meet (you know yourself after all) and then MEET IT.

Between "believe in yourself" and "fake it 'til you make it." In the former, you're not afraid to take on projects about which you know little, because you have faith that you can learn what you need to know. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as you don't misrepresent yourself. When I hear "fake it", I hear misrepresentation.

I totally agree with "fake it till you make it". And a potential client will never hear me say that I'm faking it. And a potential client will never hear "I believe in my ability to competently do things I've never done before".
So you portray yourself as an expert, or you have a much bigger chance of not landing the job. And generally us consultant types honestly have an ability to quickly pick up the skills needed without being "found out". So we fake it to get the job, and complete the job in a way that exceeds client expectations, thus "making it"

"Do you know everything there is to know about this?"
Or do they just ask "Can you do this for us"?

Faking it implies saying yes to the latter question, despite positive knowledge or at least circumstantial evidence to the opposite effect.
Saying yes despite lack of positive knowledge to that effect isn't faking it. It's completely normal and very common - and not realizing this can be one of the reasons why people begin to suffer from the impostor syndrome at all. Like we talked about in the dreyfus model thread; I don't think that the value of a consultant is in the specific bag of tricks (or stuff) that he holds, that's just being a book. I believe that the value of a great consultant is in their ability to quickly adopt new stuff, and twist it intuitively into the a form that functions in the given situation: Innovation and information hunting rather than passive knowledge.
To return to our topic, imagine this exchange of words:
A:"Can you paint the house?"
B:"Don't know, never tried"
That's not being truthful, it's just being rude.

... "can you do this for us?"

If I don't have experience with it, I tell them. Usually it goes something like this:

"I haven't done that specific thing before, but it's a known domain that others have tackled so I'm sure I can do it."

I never take those jobs on fixed price, though.

They get: "If I can't, we're both in trouble."

Your analogical question is interesting because it highlights the main point perfectly. You are, of course, right. Anyone can paint a house. But do you know which paint to use on the surface covering the house. Should a dermatalogical paint be used, weather-proof etc;? Should the house be painted at all? Is the house subject to authoratative permissions prior to painting? Are there areas that cannot be covered?

The answer "Don't know, never tried" implies that this person might actually be aware of the potential complications and implications of painting the house in an inappropriate way.

To that end, the answer is technically competent and not rude.

Just go look at the specs for the house, what was used before. Reapply.
Designing a new paint job for an unpainted house is a different matter, and may be a more appropriate parallel to consultancy. However, can a consultant be expected to be able to find out how to do something new? And, isn't every business environment somehow unique? At least, depending on the degree of interacting with employees, there's going to be individual differences.
So, ok, you know better, but I think customers might not be able to appreciate the difference between "technically honest" and "lacking in what we need". They may, in fact, not know how to ask the question they want answered.
If I'm asked "can you do this", and I don't know, I'll likely say "Let me have a look, I'll let you know in an hour". I research the process involved and guesstimate if I'm up to the task or not.

The degree to which "I don't know, but I'll find out" needs to be said depends on how little of the domain you know and how critical it is that you be absolutely correct.

"Can you make an application that does X?"

"Sure, no problem."

"It has to support 100,000 simultaneous users."

That changes things.

puts it into perspective.

Likewise, to me, if someone wants a translation of a surgical procedure manual, it makes a similar difference whether the audience of the translation is a patient group or a surgeon group.

Honestly, I don't think I am making it too difficult.

Ask a network engineer: Can you converge this network to include data, voice and video?

Answer: Don't know. Haven't tried.

I think thats reasonable simply due to the fact that so many factors are involved and up until this point, it hasn't been something that has been considered. It may even be outside of his chosen field of expertise.

It might also be the way people from his(her) neck of the woods speak. I'm from the South of England and the way we phrase a question is different from the way people from the North might phrase the same question. It doesn't make it rude. It just makes it different.

That at least is what I mean by rude... not saying "I'll go check what that would entail, then I'll let you know if it's something I can do".
A bit like just answering "yes" and doing nothing if someone asks "can you reach the salt?" (Depending, as you very correctly pointed out, on dialectal preferences).

....how many clients could you lose before making it? Enough to remove any trust or client faith in you?

... that bothers me.

Maybe you don't volunteer your ignorance, but I really don't like the idea of intentionally hiding it. Dishonesty takes a lot of energy away from a project.

Transparency as a consultant is a must. If a job can't be done because I don't have the knowledge to do it at that time, then I tell my client/customer that.

I did it once, made monumental mistakes that normally I wouldn't have done, and lost a customer that never came back.

Never again.

A couple of months ago I tried that. I thought I would be safe, I was referred by another contractor on the project, he wanted to work with me and only me. The project involved a "revolutionary paradigm shift in how we use the internet".
I told the client that I knew all the technology required to implement the concept, but I hadn't actually worked on a similar job. That was it - "stop right there, I don't think you are qualified". I was dumbfounded, and honestly felt that it was obvious that I was an ideal match. I still do - the project ended up failing.
Anyway, if I had spent a day researching I'm sure I could have comfortably talked like an expert and landed the job.
There is a great difference between our actual abilities and the potential client's perception. Lesson learned: if you want the job, be the expert.

You said the project subsequently failed. Maybe that had something to do with the attitude of this self-proclaimed paradigm-shifter. Seems to me he believed in miracles and was looking for a god to provide them.

Chip,
Your readers can take an online test for the impostor syndrome at www.impostorquiz.com

Don't go there. And don't post the link either

Any of that happens on TR, do you?

Well at least not with me anyway.

edited to add;
depending on how you mean that...
After re-reading the article, hum, I recognize myself in many of the points given, but I do not consider myself an "Impostor" with-in a 'syndrome'. Perhaps though, I am overly critical of myself, but I think for me personally, it more a question of finding a 'fit', rather than as an impostor, false or otherwise.

Listen up! You might learn something. Any time someone posts something that sounds suspiciously like a bad dialogue from a cliched private detective lifted from a worse 70s exploitation movie, I can't help but get a mental image of a guy afraid to leave his mother's basement sitting before a computer (front left) and a mirror (front right) into which he offers his best Bogart impersonations.

As for me, I just try to do the best I can to conceal my Nobel Laureate status. Gotta run -- dinner with "O" and then hop across the pond in my private jet to give Steve a chance to redeem himself on that chess game we had last week.

Edited to add ... I hope at least one person gets that the sardonics are pointed elsewhere.

For all anybody knows, I'm that guy in the basement. None of you have ever met me, including the folks at CBSi. It's all an elaborate hoax!

"A lot of brooklyn heads still live with their moms..."

That's from a hilarious rap song I heard a long long time ago on dirtyradio... I think it's by Thirstin Howl the 3rd, but researching it was a pain.

I've got to look these guys up. If they came up with a name like that, they've got to have some interesting song lyrics...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirstin_Howl_III
with a name from Gilligan's Island, no less
Real name, Victor DeJesus... not so bad that one either

Oops. I should have read the text of your message before I posted this.

enough.
At least judging from some of the photos I found. I only made the connection from the lyrics fragment to the creator through an archived BBS convo... in french. I'm thinking a lot of important memes are slipping through the net; future historians will be scratching their heads... after ripping out their hair of course.

If I ever grow pathologically obese I'll take up either rap or death metal or acid-bop (whichever is more dreaded/least mainstream in that day and age) and call myself "the Gibberin Jowlz Maak Vee-ay!"

the question in context. The response was worth it.

Me, I have a dream of Neo-beat, Punk Romanticist movement ... kind of a Byron, Ginsberg, Sid Vicious mash. Really could make room for a measure of rap, though.

Now you can take the two adjacent titles out of context.

That sounds an awful lot like how they constructed Goth...

I'm starting to think that the next teen craze will be a mix of barbie girl, bitches brew and baroque... ouchie!

How about a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, only set in 1950's New York, and rather than families, they could be street gangs ... the gang of native New Yorkers and a Hungarian gang ?- no make that Puerto Rican. Oh, and get this, it could be retold by the conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Nah, that's crazy. How about setting it in Southern California and an Australian opera director could be retelling ... forget it. It's a stupid idea.

I was going to retire with the refrain from below, but then thought why not with the imagined cast of: Itshak Perlman, The Clash and Miles Davis -- already been used, make that Ornette Coleman doing a three way of this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tqxzWdKKu8

Anyone who has seen your source code knows that it's not all a hoax.

I'm not a perfectionist I'm lazy.

So if I do it right the first time I don't have to come back and do it again.

Isn't it strange how many people pin the wrong label on you for the wrong reasons.

Col

I said to myself, "I'll go with Chip's afterthought -- Be Thyself. Can't go wrong with that." But then that kind of circled back into the main post -- How can one "Be Thyself" if one does not "Know Thyself?"

All kinds of fine edges here that are easy to fall off, one side or the other. It is good to project confidence, but too far to one side, and you project arrogance, which may be perceived as compensating for ineptness or for just plain arrogance. Too far to the other side and you project under-confidence, which projects a lack of ability to accomplish the job.

Another edge -- self-effacing humor. Too far in one direction it shows false modesty which is arrogance with a cherry on top. Too far in the other and it looks like, not just lack of confidence, but self loathing.

Tough balancing act, but we can't avoid it can we. All this in saying another fine product from your kitchen ... Be Thyself, but understand thine's true measure (value, attributes, weaknesses) first.

Wonderful article, Chip.

I have felt that many times, since as IT consultant I must be well versed in many fields (for commercial reasons), but I can't better than my clients in all them!

God-Sent Saviours!

I love this article. It is nice to know that I am not alone.

New company in town markets to my long-term customer and does the razzle-dazzle marketing, while criticizing every teeny thing that isn't perfect in the client's systems (whether I had anything to do about it or not). Customer hires new company. It takes months and sometimes years before the customer realizes that things are worse and deteriorating.
They call me back, tell me the story, and hire me to come in and clean up the mess. Meanwhile, I've been questioning myself, thinking about day-labor and drinking.
This arc seems to repeat over and over.
Oh Sage, I need an article about that.

convince my clients not to listen to hype.

Or teach them how to see through it! Now if only we could isolate that, and slip it in the water supply!

I've been trying to distill some essence of that in the IT Security column for years. Given the kinds of responses I often get, I feel like I'm failing to get through to anyone other than those who already know enough to see through the illusions -- like I'm preaching to the choir, and just making enemies of everybody else because I'm "forcing" them to work extra-hard to maintain their biases.

You might try other than the front door.

You could try being straightforward with people from time to time -- such as with me, right now. If you can't be clear about what you think you're suggesting, though, maybe you should do my job instead.

Do you want my job? See if you can talk the editors into giving it to you. Let's see if your "back door" approach makes any hay.

In dealing with prejudices and cultural conditioning, any kind of push will be met with a violent counterreaction.
Hair of the dog, I guess. Manipulation to condition against manipulation. Hoodwink.

I think Michael Kassner has a pretty good hold on the "not raising the hackles while slipping the leash", he succeeds in coming across as quite innocuous. And since all bloggers try to affect their readers' stance, it must be skillfully done. Not sure if it's a learnable skill though, or an acquired one.
It's important though, the not raising the hackles, to avoid the fate of Tyr.

Is adamant about his occupation of the "flyover zone".

Sure, I tell him.

Don't you believe what he says for so much as a second.

is too dangerous to throw around the internet, I feel.
Ponder, that's as far as I'll go.
And I have a pristine disk image, I'll notice intrusion
And then I go look again, see how it was done.

Of layers of indirection.

Ugh. Three, "ofs".

Direct, indirect, misdirect in time.
Guide, shunt, misguide in turn.

It's the information warfare shuffle... or is it a waltz? Tango? Foxtrot? These things I forget. If you will believe it

I have the skills for deception, but not the motivation. If deception is really the only way to get through to people who don't already agree, I'll focus on those who are more inclined to agree so that they need nothing but reason to improve their understanding. Let the chips fall where they may. I guess I'd rather be an example than a manipulator.

Anyway . . . I know that a straightforward, honest approach can work. It worked on me. The trigger that got me on the path to my current position on the matter of copyright was a conversation with someone I had never met before, which questioned the ethical basis for copyright law. Interestingly enough, the person who asked the question was literally asking out of uncertainty -- which, I believe, is exactly what Michael Kassner is doing a lot of the time. He's a seeker, from what I've seen, and not a manipulator. Having recently spoken to him in person (again) is part of the reason I believe that to be the case.

You deceive and manipulate beginning with word one. We are all "dirty".

Motivation, now -- that's another thing, and it's a bundle of things, none of which I question when it comes to Michael or to you, Chad.

Michael is just better at keeping his to himself. In print, anyway.

But to highlight what I mean, I'll admit I have trouble resisting massive advertising campaigns like the SUV-drive of 2006... I didn't fold but I was staggered for a while, even wondering if that is then what one has to buy now.

Ways to inocculate against that kind of assault are welcome. And that's an intent I can respect.

The seeker/doubter BTW has been one of the most effective subversion techniques... since plato's aristotle at least.
It's more than just Columbo, it's an appeal to a persons positive face; asking the other to participate in solving a problem - thus suspending their defenses by making them think they're being let through the seeker's defenses.

And it never works unless it's believable, honest-like. The very best ones probably believe it to be true themselves.

Ultimately I think it's a question of politeness. Some people respond well to a command to "stop being dumb!", others don't. Some require a more polite, less face-threatening approach. And it's not really being dishonest, it's just tailoring the teaching to allow the student to feel like they found the point all by themselves. It's an appealing way to learn, and effective too. A person is more likely to remember their own shining moments than a dry account in a book.

Too bad, AnsuGisalas. Santeewelding's attempts at subtlety have pretty well armored me against your much subtler approach.

Everyone in this business will deal with that. It's inevitable. This is easier said than done and I don't always do it myself, but if you're competent and trustworthy, don't take it personally.

I've been fortunate in a couple of those instances when it became apparent only after a few months went by. The client entertained his fantasy that all his problems were because of his I.T. person and called me back with a much more cooperative spirit.

I encourage them all to go to someone else if they're not comfortable with me.

I think I have imposter syndrome and didnt know until I read this article. Mine was seeded by always being told Im stupid. I now hold a degree working toward my masters and it doesnt feel like I am achieving anything. How do I get over it? I dont, I just work harder, not to prove Im smarter but simply because I have to do what I have to do.

What are the adverse effects of this disorder

I think they call this the "Pretender" syndrome in psychology. Excellent article and great basic advice.

This came across my computer at the right moment. I needed this counseling and the last statement, Get To Work. I am not usually one to give myself negative messages, but every once in a while I do. Glad to know this what was creating procrastination that I have been worrying about. Thanks again. I am off to WORK!

Of course I have Imposter Syndrome. In my case, it comes from only having moderate self-confidence; and working in a field where what you know becomes obsolete on a daily basis. I suspect that the longer you're in the field, the more you're likely to suffer from it.

I don't think those who suffer from this ailment ever really cure it. But it can be controlled. I keep a master, tell-all resume' of everything I've done, results, and when I did it; and a list of all training completed and when. This lets me have a realistic view of what I know and am capable of; as well as a base of what I need to be retrained on for currency.

Keep those letters of appreciation (as well as the ones critical of your performance). Drag them out whenever you're feeling an attack of inadequacy.

Reviewing where you've been and what you've done usually yields a surprising number of accomplishments about which you may have forgotten.

I'd like to echo the suggestion to keep copies of letters of appreciation. Tiptoeing through my Compliments folder once in a while always gives me a boost.

Another benefit of a keeping attaboy letters is that over time you might see patterns in what people comment upon. These are good indicators of your strengths - then you can look for projects that will include them.

Wow, just what I needed too. Been procrastinating for a few weeks; time to get some work done

Fantastic article, many thanks

I couldn't relate to the Imposter Syndrome at all, so I asked myself why, and is this something that could be useful to others? It's not that I haven't ever screwed anything up before, because I certainly have. But when that happens I know why it went wrong, and I don't confuse problems that I personally caused--even if the client didn't blame me--with being an imposter. I look at how I can keep that same situation from happening again. The domain I'm talking about includes systems analysis and design, coding, IT assessments at the CIO level, and client management problems, so it's a broad area. It sounds like I screw up a lot, but we're talking about a handful of problems over more than 30 years--that's still a handful too many, of course!

The first thing that has kept me from being an imposter is not accepting assignments that are outside my area of competency. I don't design or write or manage software to control satellites or weapons systems. I'm not an SAP expert, and I don't do assembler (any more), etc. I'm pretty sure if I took on an assignment like that I WOULD feel like an imposter, so my advice is don't do it, and that will take care of a lot of issues. And if you think you need to take an assignment because you need the money or other reasons, you need to find ways to compensate for your lack of experience--more below.

The second thing is that I'm usually more critical of my own performance than the client, and if not, the client is clearly deranged and can be disregarded. That's the same principle as George Carlin's observation that anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot, and anyone who drives faster than you is a maniac. But by constantly assessing my own performance, I don't have other people telling me I'm performing poorly, because I know how I'm performing. And if things are getting off track, I correct them EARLY, not ignore them. Ideally that happens before the client realizes anything is amiss. Early detection and correction is kind of a project manager thing that spills over into other areas.

In the very early stage of my career, I was fortunate to be able to get some independent observations of my client interaction that helped me in that tricky area. For example, I asked someone who had been at the previous meeting why the client was so mad at me at this meeting. He said the client told me previously not to do X, and the solution I came up with included X. What? Really? I absolutely did not process that from the client--but when it was brought up I finally vaguely recalled him saying something like that. This was long before Jake on "Two and Half Men", but it's how he behaves (ignoring and forgetting), and I decided I didn't want to be in that position again. So I found ways to listen better and take better notes, because those were the skills I needed to work on. It never happened again. So for those soft skills, getting some independent assessment was invaluable. Otherwise, it's hard to know if you're performing well, or you're out to lunch and not paying attention.

The third thing, mentioned above, is that if you know you're not performing at the level you should be, you need to specifically compensate for that, and by that I don't mean go into denial and a failure spiral. For example, I do very little coding now, but a project came up a few months ago that looked very interesting, and I didn't have anyone up to speed on that particular platform. It was a base that I knew something about, although not at a senior level. I was able to personally do the work, while viewing my own programming with the eye of a project manager. I decided that I was performing at the speed of a junior programmer, albeit one who was unusually bright and unlikely to make any serious database errors. So, I simply increased the time to completion estimates as needed, and seriously discounted both the rate and the hours reported, until I had myself working at a bargain rate for that client. It's essential to be fair. I had to work a lot of 12 hour days and weekends at first to get on top of things, but that compensation kept me from feeling like an imposter--I was someone operating at a relatively low level but I wasn't trying to fool anyone. I even told the client that I thought the project would go better if I personally did it, and what the problems would be if I did. And yeah, I didn't even report several days where I was totally spinning my wheels because that time was beyond the pale--I felt that invoicing the client for 16 hours at zero dollars just made me look like a moron, which was in that case accurate. Not an imposter, though. I offer that as an extreme case of doing something that I could have been competent to do, but didn't have enough recent experience. By compensating and treating the client fairly, I didn't feel like an imposter.

Of course it's normal to sometimes question whether you're operating at a reasonable level--that's healthy, and a good self-assessment will let you address any issues that you have. But the key is being accurate in your assessment, something that's hard to do.

The bottom line is that unless you ARE an imposter, you should be able to take steps to make sure you don't operate at an imposter's level. Of course maybe I work at a fast food joint for minimum wage asking people if they want fries with that, and I just made up all that IT stuff above...

You're doing your job, everybody is loving it, you get praise right and left, and you start to feel that, wait a minute... is this me? Am I worth what they claim I am, and if so, why don't I feel like I am?
Have you ever had that feeling?
I'm not sure, but I guess just prior to the .com bubble bursting there were some techs that had very sweaty egoes, business partners oiling them this way and that and all...

Most everyone in the .com bubble had no idea what they were doing -- they were making it up as they went along. Buzzwords served for knowledge; slide presentations served for products; stock options served for salary.

three words on a cocktail napkin with a nifty little diagram (doodle) replaced the 100 page business plan.

The worst part was there was so much noise at the time, that potential startups with a pristine signal could not get noticed. Even beauty parlor franchises were now considered startups. Worst of all, I recall an MIT undergrad had developed a technology that would revolutionize some aspect of medical diagnosis (can't remember details). He couldn't get funding because he couldn't explain it in 90 seconds, while "Sell Petfood Online" would get more investors than you could shake a bubble at.

I liked your "Junior Programmer" methodology. I have done something similar in the past, recording the wheel spinning hours on my timesheet to an internal project for self-training. It's an investment.

This is an area where it gets tricky for me... A combination the Imposter Syndrome and the fact that I almost always feel like I am still learning. This means I tend to short change myself because I often feel like I learned something new and therefore shouldn't charge as much as an 'expert'. I frequently put at least some of my time down to "learning time".

At what point do you accept that some trial & error and/or some learning is going to part of almost every job?

Part of my problem being, I live in a remote area and there are no 'experts' for miles and miles (some would say I am the closest thing to an expert around here), so I have to take on some stuff just because I'm the closest thing to "the real deal" around here.

I've been doing this stuff for twenty years but sometimes I still feel like an imposter.

Thanks for the timely reminder!

Getting back to work now....

Good point. One of the benefits as well as curses of this profession is the rapid change. Makes it fun, but I find it's very difficult to do two projects in a row the same way using the same tools. So I plan on a certain amount of learning time on almost every project, even if it's just extending what we already know, or making a piece of reusable code better.

In the example of spinning my wheels for a couple days, I finally said OK, what would I do if I was sitting in a bunch of cubicles with an assortment of junior and senior developers who were all using this particular tool? I'd walk down the hall until I found someone to take a few minutes to look at what I was doing and set me straight.

In that case I was fortunate to find a trainer who had a one week class, but who also did hands on work--I didn't want JUST an instructor or JUST a person who did the work but who didn't see the big picture and who couldn't explain why he or she did what they did. I also didn't want to waste a week in class since I already knew a lot about the platform, and just wanted some highly focused one on one time. I bought a block of time in advance at a discounted rate, and then we set up a Skype conference for free, and I was able to "share" my screen while talking to her. She was able to tell me what to type, which was a better learning experience than having her take over my screen and just do the work at 5 times the speed that I could comprehend. In two hours she had me totally out of the weeds, and in the process showed me a couple debugging tricks that I hadn't figured out for myself. I really recommend something like this when you're working by yourself, either because you're physically isolated, or because you're the only one in your group doing that kind of work.

The rule of thumb that I use for estimating the completion of work is to take the estimation of the quantity of work--which we do from the number and complexity of screens, reports, processes, set up, etc. in a project, counting each piece separately--and then assume that the work is only going to get done at the rate of about 20 hours a week. That allows for interruptions caused by emergencies on other projects where the programmer is needed elsewhere, but it also allows for a certain amount of learning time that isn't chargeable to the client. That leakage is just a fact of life.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

def estimate(guess)
2 * estimate(guess)
end

puts estimate(ARGV[0])

(edit: formatting)

... Hofstadter's Rule correctly.

I recommend naming that script "hofstadter.rb".

Thanks for putting the effort into a great piece of writing! There is a lot of information to be taken in and associate with how I am, but the advice is more than sound and certainly worth the read for anyone with a concern about their own abilities!

Chip,
Your readers might enjoy taking the online quiz for the impostor syndrome at http://www.impostorquiz.com.

Took the test and wouldn't you know it, error 404, page not found...

How's that for confidence building !!

It's not your fault!

Ten wrong decisions are at best worthless, often damaging and at worst catastrophic. One right decision has value. There is no way that ten bad decisions beat one right decision. We should leave platitudes an slogans to the politicians and concern us only with the truth. After all, in our field, if we get it right, it works, if we don't, it doesn't. Computers are unforgiving beasts. Another reason one may at times feel inadequate.

Wow.