Fighting impostor syndrome in four easy steps

If you are anything like me, you have experienced impostor syndrome at some point in your life. If you are really like me, you have to deal with it pretty often. And we both know that sucks. So, for this week's lunch talks, let's try and get rid of it once and for all! *

* Ok, let's be honest. It probably won't work 100%. But if we can reduce it a teeny-weeny bit, we'll have succeeded 🙌

What makes a developer? | Ivana McConnell (29:33 min)

First, repeat with me: "I am a developer". No matter where your background is, no matter what languages you know. Ivana McConnell insists on that, and puts focus on consciously pull away from perceptions that devaluate certain languages or paths into development. It's not you, it's them. You are a developer.

Attitude Determines Altitude: Engineering Yourself & Your Teams | Randy Shoup (43:02 min)

Ok, you now believe you are a developer. Great! But, I know, it's not easy to keep the confidence up. Randy Shoup focuses on the psychological aspects of how our mind works and talks about getting into a growth mindset and gaining trust and confidence.

Mejorando como desarrolladores | Belén Albeza (42:24 min)

Hopefully confidence is building up on you, and you want to keep improving as a developer. But, what to learn next? Many new shiny things come up every day, and it's hard to know what to focus on. Belén Albeza gives us concrete advice (in Spanish) on what to do to keep learning effectively, and how we can make our teammates better as well.

Why you should make useless things | Simone Giertz (11:58 min)

Yay! You are a confident developer and you know how to keep improving. What's next? It's likely your career will be bumpy, and you will fail a lot, but that's ok because you will succeed on other things too. You don't need to build a rocket and save the human race by terraforming Mars to be a great developer. Simone Giertz talks about the importance of making useless things, how it will relieve you from pressure and how it can lead to unexpectedly awesome results. Plus, she is wearing a googly eyes t-shirt.