A couple of years ago, one of my earlier mentors, got a lesson about the differences between crevices and crevasses from his manager after a meeting with some business users. Dropping into technical talk, he was told, should be like going into a crevice, however that day he fell into a crevasse.

He admitted that it was a character flaw that he was trying to address. He often felt that he needed to talk in greater technical detail and with more jargon than needed due to feelings of inadequacy about the things he didn’t yet know.

It was when I heard this that I realized impostor syndrome was:

1. More common than I previously thought
2. Underrated.

Why so common?

You are having a conversation with two friends about various different things. At different times you cover something that the third person didn’t know. The circles in this diagram represent areas of knowledge.

Why underrated?

Even the greatest can suffer from it, but it is exactly what spurs them on to keep learning and achieving greater things.

It’s not just fake it to you make it. It’s think you’re faking it until you’ve more than made it.