Friday, March 31, 2023

Neil Gaiman on Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome. You know what it is because you've probably experienced it: an unfounded feeling that your successes are the product of luck or deception rather than your skills and hard work.

Here's a anecdote from best-selling author Neil Gaiman on experiencing imposter syndrome:

"Some years ago, I was lucky enough to be invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things.  And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things.

"On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name.* And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, 'I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.'

"And I said, 'Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.'

"And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did. Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for."

Neal Stephenson, Neil Armstrong & Neil Gaiman
Neal Stephenson, Neil Armstrong, and Neil Gaiman  May 17, 2017

*"I remember being amused and flattered that he knew who I was, not because he'd read anything by me, but because the Google algorithm of the time had me down as Neil #1."




Sources: https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2017/05/the-neil-story-with-additional-footnote.htmlhttps://journal.neilgaiman.com/2012/08/neil-armstrong.html

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