Or perhaps it is imposter imposter syndrome? A deep flex? Maybe just a plain imposter with no syndrome? You could give yourself an anxiety disorder worrying about it too much. </tongue-in-cheek>

I didn't mean it as a flex, more a general observation that we're biased towards narratives that comforts us. So maybe when I'm feeling useless, I take comfort in the idea that super bright people also feel useless once in a while, and so, that puts me in a category with super bright people, we have this in common, so maybe I'm also super bright! ;)

Except, of course I am not, and of course I'm not explicitly thinking that way, but I do think that my brain unconsciously makes that connection on some level, irrational as it may be.

It's such an alluring thought, that maybe I'm not incompetent, maybe I'm just having this "syndrome" that so many other bright people have too... A lot easier to accept than the truth.

The article is dense, needlessly complexified, and impenetrable (requiring specific arts to read it), making the article useless.

This whole thread is brilliant - I really admire the one or two people that tried to summarise/translate sections. That said, I find something weird about people that write about imposter syndrome.

Something similar to imposter syndrome is normal for anyone who is highly skilled:

* To be highly skilled you are continuously improving you skills, by fixing the flaws in your work and fixing your own flaws, from the large to the small.

* To successfully fix flaws, you need to be able to recognise the flaws, in finer and finer detail, as you become more and more skilled. The irony is that while external parties can genuinely admire your work, you yourself can only see more and more that is wrong with your work.

* If you can’t see flaws, you don’t fix the flaws, and you don’t progress.

There is a gorgeous section of one interview with Jim Keller (a legendary/genius chip designer) where he talks about how he knew how deeply flawed his work is. He is really inspiring because he he is so insightful about his thought processes, and there is no entangled bullshit like the article we are commenting on. I also love this quote of his: "Imagine 99% of your thought process is protecting your self-conception, and 98% of that is wrong.". Quote is at @1:23:00 of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb2tebYAaOA