Getting Rid of Imposter Syndrome as a SWE | Prime Advice

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  • Опубліковано 16 лис 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 125

  • @ThePrimeTimeagen
    @ThePrimeTimeagen  Рік тому +113

    HEY! LISTEN TO THE END, IT WILL MAKE A TON OF SENSE.
    I am sorry for the alerts. It was on the opening to my stream and i just felt inspired. The opening of the stream i just let them fly because its fun (its where 80% of them happen). So sorry, but i mean this from the bottom of my heart. please don't have imposter syndrome and i do think what i am saying, if you listen to the end, will help you.

    • @ThePrimeTimeagen
      @ThePrimeTimeagen  Рік тому +32

      also first

    • @zored1337
      @zored1337 Рік тому +2

      @@ThePrimeTimeagen Now you did, I won't be able to do so :(

    • @Zubbbz
      @Zubbbz Рік тому +1

      Pro tip, if this is pulled from the stream vod then ignore the rest of this comment, otherwise, if you can try recording while you stream and put alerts on a separate audio track

    • @guifa2
      @guifa2 Рік тому

      how to handle imposter syndrome while being rejected in interviews, even when you think you done well in them?

    • @guyfromdubai
      @guyfromdubai Рік тому

      Just dont have impostor syndrome 4head, finally the answer!

  • @headlights-go-up
    @headlights-go-up Рік тому +79

    You're the senior dev and mentor everyone could benefit from, and the fact you're able to broadcast your wisdom and advice is amazing. I can't say it enough, thank you for uploading these to the UA-camz

    • @robotron1236
      @robotron1236 5 місяців тому

      Honestly, I haven’t even tried to find a mentor, because of content creators like this and knowing how to research things on my own. I REALLY enjoy the research part. I’m not studying to be a programmer, I’m studying to become a hacker, but there’s a lot of overlap. I need to have knowledge that’s an inch deep and a mile wide, though I’m striving for at least a foot deep 😂 I’ve been having trouble in some of my hacking classes, so I took a step back to study a little bit of programming and scripting.

  • @JoseTrigueros
    @JoseTrigueros Рік тому +17

    "It is so much better failing, than to never try"
    100% jive with this mentality, keep on preaching!

  • @kylestubblefield3404
    @kylestubblefield3404 Рік тому +38

    Real Talk. I have been able to be a part of so many amazing things in my carrier because of the "Can Do" attitude. I don't know everything, but I am confident in my ability to learn what needs to be known to do the task that is placed before me. That has served me so well professionally. "Big K can you do this?" "I've never done it before, let me figure it out. I will tell you in an hour what I think it will take." The boss loves that.

  • @analisamelojete1966
    @analisamelojete1966 Рік тому +31

    You have two takes to deal with the syndrome:
    1). You can feel sad because there’s much to learn, much you don’t know. This is a let down for you.
    2). Avoid comparison with others, get excited for new things to learn, and as prime said, build stuff.
    Just be curious, try different techniques, stacks.

  • @julienarpin5745
    @julienarpin5745 Рік тому +69

    My secret? I suffer from Dunning-Krueger Effect, and can read.

  • @lazyh0rse
    @lazyh0rse Рік тому +19

    Dunning-Krueger is the secret to programming. Until lately, I have been always dismissing "hard" ideas when I want to create a side project. Trying to come up with something in my "level", which deemed impossible, because simple ideas are boring, and boring ideas will make programming not fun.

  • @zsmain
    @zsmain Рік тому +5

    Key points:
    - Continually expand your skills and knowledge through exploring new technologies (both in and outside of work).
    - Reviewing basic data structures.
    - Practice building greenfield projects.
    - Try, even if they fail, as it's better than not trying at all.

  • @ExpertOfNil
    @ExpertOfNil Рік тому +4

    I have made my career off of being able to translate my "hobby" programming explorations to innovative solutions within my field. You are 100% right about the value of "side-projects". And the beauty of R&D is that failure is often more informative than success... at least initially 😉

  • @N7Null
    @N7Null Рік тому +5

    Message received. I work at Costco now.

  • @hawkingradiation3774
    @hawkingradiation3774 Рік тому +2

    dude i dont know why talks from this guy motivates me to become me better engineer and actually kinda reminds why do i like this stuff and why did i started it in the first place...
    thanyou primeagen!

  • @sadkebab
    @sadkebab Рік тому +7

    I just recently got out of Impostor Syndorme after left my full time Java/C# developer job and spend the last year and a half working the bare minimum I needed as a freelancer while spending most of my time learning as much stuff as possibile and building a lot of useless side projects.
    Now not only I feel confindent... I also enjoy building software and learning about new techs like nothing else I do.
    (and hopefully this will lead me to much better paying jobs in the future)

  • @joelkorpela2706
    @joelkorpela2706 Рік тому +3

    I moved from Support into a Junior Dev role. It was me and two senior devs. After three years in I quit purely because I didn't think I was good enough. I've been back in the field for years, and in hindsight I was crushing it and could have easily been given a raise had I asked instead of quitting. Please learn from my mistake, if you're in your first few years of dev just focus on being better than you were yesterday by working on problems that push you. If you do that you are already ahead of 99% of people and will soon shed any remaining imposter syndrome.

  • @theLowestPointInMyLife
    @theLowestPointInMyLife Рік тому +5

    The problem with this advice is it's supposed to be a job, something you do for X hours per day, so you can afford to switch off and do other things in the other hours. The idea that you should be effectively working 24/7 just to keep your job is so bad. Most of us enjoy exploring this area in our own time, but we shouldn't let companies take advantage of that or demand it as a minimum.

    • @vulpixelful
      @vulpixelful Рік тому

      Yeah Prime is a bit of a workaholic. Personally I'm investing enough so I don't have to code for money forever

  • @mnmli0
    @mnmli0 Рік тому +6

    So basically, leveraging the forgetting curve on commonly used data structures...
    Good point about greenfield projects. Sage advice.

  • @blackfi12e622
    @blackfi12e622 Рік тому +1

    Great advice about greenfield projects. Before I try to incorporate new technology into existing codebase, I almost always have to try it on a side/empty/new project. That way I can get a feel of how it works, and less chance of something going wrong and bringing things down. It's also much easier to learn on a new project than an existing project that may have many layers to it already.

    • @TehKarmalizer
      @TehKarmalizer Рік тому

      I’ve been doing that as well. Feels a lot safer to chop up the code and recompose it.

  • @Prod-23
    @Prod-23 Рік тому +2

    Absolute stack of good things in this video.
    I'm also in one of these situations right now. Shoehorning localisation into the heart of a complex old system with every gotcha in the book being thrown at me. Client has given me 1/5th of the time needed to do it in. Every other team member says "hell no, not me". The kind of change that once you start, you have to write an enormous of amount of code and change almost every part of the system before it will even run again.
    Having used all the tech stack in an ideal environment, often in my own time "greenfield" style, is my saving grace.

    • @ThePrimeTimeagen
      @ThePrimeTimeagen  Рік тому +3

      lets go! also sorry you got such the responsibility on your shoulders

    • @bobbycrosby9765
      @bobbycrosby9765 Рік тому +1

      Oh man. I18n and l10n are sooooo terrible to bolt on after the fact. It's like a death from 10,000,000 paper cuts. It's so much easier just to require it from the outset, and once you have the support libraries built out it doesn't really slow you down either.

    • @Prod-23
      @Prod-23 Рік тому

      @@ThePrimeTimeagen It's all good. I like the challenge.

    • @Prod-23
      @Prod-23 Рік тому +1

      ​@@bobbycrosby9765 Amen to that.
      I think this change is probably going to hit ~80% server side code/classes and every component and service.
      It's all the knock on things. Testing. QA. Even the code review is going to be mega ...

  • @bikidas5473
    @bikidas5473 Рік тому +1

    One of the thing i do personally is fail. Badly building something which is quite complex at the beginning but as soon as i start, i get to solution to some problems and some i don't but everytime there is a new thing i learn!

  • @MrRhonin7
    @MrRhonin7 Рік тому +3

    I've seen 0 videos on this channel where prime didn't forget to turn off his notifications

    • @ThePrimeTimeagen
      @ThePrimeTimeagen  Рік тому

      shhh

    • @MrRhonin7
      @MrRhonin7 Рік тому

      @ThePrimeTime it's an important indicator for the viewers to know on which channel they are watching, great QoL feature

  • @robotron1236
    @robotron1236 5 місяців тому

    I’m not studying to be a programmer, I’m studying to become an ethical hacker, but I find your videos extremely relevant, interesting and also pretty hilarious. I need to learn a little bit of programming to be able to hack, so there’s a lot of overlap here.

  •  Рік тому +5

    Great advice from The Prime, but one thing about impostor syndrome: it's probably a mental problem. So, if you suffer a lot from it, just go to a psychiatric doctor to get yourself properly treated.
    If you EVENTUALLY suffer from it for a specific thing happening in your life, it is normal. For example, you may think you're a good developer, but then you enter Twitter or Twitch and see people like Theo or The Prime (who works at Netflix, by the way) doing awesome stuff with Typescript and Rust, working at huge companies. You may be working on a small project, and suddenly the impostor syndrome comes in, and you feel like shit. It happens, and it's normal.
    What is NOT normal:
    When you're a great husband, and even if your kids or wife say that you're awesome, you just don't believe it.
    When you deliver an extremely complex project that has millions of dollars in returns to the company, and even after that, you feel like you should have done better, and what you have done wasn't enough.
    When no matter what you do, nothing fulfills your feeling of accomplishment.
    If you feel like that, GO TO A DOCTOR.
    It happened to me, and I'm working on it. It's not as easy as it looks for some people.

    • @BusinessWolf1
      @BusinessWolf1 Рік тому

      it's not, fuck off. it's a highly solvable issue and saying people can't solve it on their own just adds to the impostor syndrome of everyone who believes that

    • @metaphoricallyalive8109
      @metaphoricallyalive8109 Рік тому

      Great advice too! Thanks man!

  • @tibo1671
    @tibo1671 Рік тому

    Interessant, never thought about it like that "duning kruger is better than imposter syndrom". But it makes a ton of sense

  • @developerdeveloper67
    @developerdeveloper67 Рік тому

    5:17 -> 6:07. Now that was just gold! Good stuff here.

  • @jzTDM
    @jzTDM Рік тому +3

    1:55 just experiencing this right now as a new dev lmao. I just got on board onto a big project, and I was given a pretty simple task. I thought I could do it within an hour or so, but holy fuck man it took me quite a while because I had to do some codebase acrobatics so that I won't break anything

  • @_orangutan
    @_orangutan Рік тому +1

    I've been unemployed since I left university (1 year, the job search is a total shit show) but I have not stopped diving deep into topics that interest me. The main things are Distributed Systems, Networking with a RPI 4 cluster. At this point I'll just launch my own startup since I can't seem to land a job.

    • @GordonKojo-du8fx
      @GordonKojo-du8fx Рік тому

      Which country are you in?

    • @swerami
      @swerami Рік тому +1

      It’s been a year and a half for me here. My country is at war and I can’t work where I’m currently staying lol

  • @tomasznocon6378
    @tomasznocon6378 Рік тому +4

    The Dunning-Kruger thing is a magma temperature take. If you're on the Dunning-Kruger peak, then by definition you're arrogant, and that, to most people, especially in a professional setting is completely unacceptable. Whereas the behavior of someone with imposter syndrome is. I understand the former might be better for your personal growth, but definitely not in terms of how you're perceived by your peers and superiors, which could really hurt your career.

  • @NotTheHeroStudios
    @NotTheHeroStudios Рік тому

    As soon as this video fired up, I knew someone was going to trigger the gunshot

  • @coreykuehl8519
    @coreykuehl8519 10 місяців тому +1

    Definitely have imposter syndrome, but the goal moving forward is to put in more effort to earn feeling confident

  • @awave7710
    @awave7710 Рік тому

    straight facts. watching your vids & streams recently just made writing code fun again, haven't felt like that in a minute

  • @kwikam
    @kwikam Рік тому +2

    Interesting bit I could not listen to the end. I said to myself that one more "welcome to costco" and I'm done, so I was

  • @widnyj5561
    @widnyj5561 Рік тому

    I thought about it a lot, and my conclusion is: it's hard to gain confidence in your skills based on easy things, when hard skills/things become easy when you master them.
    You just need to reconsider what your co-workers see in you as valuable asset during dev and problem solving - and put those into your own list of valuable skills, even if these feels like not worthy of it.

  • @Doomsdayparade
    @Doomsdayparade Рік тому

    Life lessons everyone should take to heart

  • @susbedoo
    @susbedoo 5 місяців тому +1

    I love you, Prime

  • @BRP-Moto-Tips
    @BRP-Moto-Tips Рік тому

    damn, you gotta love this guy, thanks for the content

  • @samdroid37
    @samdroid37 Рік тому

    "the dunning kruger side" lol i love it

  • @Oswee
    @Oswee Рік тому

    Greenfield projects will connect the dots! 10000%

  • @devman1238
    @devman1238 Рік тому

    Ive turned down big jumps to move companies because of imposter syndrome

  • @johngagon
    @johngagon Рік тому

    Agree. Easier to just be real. Scratch the Imposter, Scratch the Newb, Scratch the Guru. You can fall into a trap of Dunning-Kreuger one way or Imposter the other way. No one can possibly know you. Whatever criticism you get, a simple "they don't know me" works. Whatever expectations you get, modestly summarize: "I only just read that." Reputation kinda does matter in the workplace. It's always being checked and foolish to ignore which is why people get Imposter Syndrome. If you level, they stop checking. Let the work do the wow'ing. And yes, while it's a balance, erring a little Dunning Krueger for habitual imposters gets them more challenges.

  • @sirhenrystalwart8303
    @sirhenrystalwart8303 Рік тому +1

    100% disagree about being on the Dunning Kruger side. There is nothing more annoying than dealing with a co-worker who confidently spouts bullshit 24/7 like it's received wisdom from On High. If I wanted that, I would work in car sales.

  • @DagarCoH
    @DagarCoH Рік тому +1

    Thanks Prime, now I think I am schizophreniac. I am a "Can do" person WITH constant impostor syndrome. On good days I pleasantly surprise myself, on bad ones I say "they made a mistake thinking I of all people could pull this off"

    • @BusinessWolf1
      @BusinessWolf1 Рік тому +1

      we should look at programming like fishing. On some days you just don't catch ANYTHING.

    • @DagarCoH
      @DagarCoH Рік тому

      @@BusinessWolf1 That is so true. I always mean to start a work diary for the sake of tracking progress over time and what I thought about it at the time. If I am in a good mood, I can see how much I both contributed to the project and also improved myself over time working, but on a daily basis, if you don't even get a bite to speak in your metaphor, that can sometimes be hard to spot.

  • @mohammadnafisalam4292
    @mohammadnafisalam4292 Рік тому

    i struggle with imposter syndrome , and my company has been incentivising my effort generously . therefore, sometime i do sense guilt

  • @nanahiiragi723
    @nanahiiragi723 Рік тому +1

    I don't have imposter syndrome I'm just incompetent

  • @Zoom.x9
    @Zoom.x9 Рік тому +3

    Coding itself is fun but I quit learning because web dev was frustrating. Do you think trying again with Rust and backend only or maybe Leptos would be a good idea?

    • @BusinessWolf1
      @BusinessWolf1 Рік тому +1

      try again with web dev. build resilience. do difficult shit intentionally and struggle your ass off. this is the ONLY way. otherwise the same thing will happen with Rust.

    • @skankhunt42940
      @skankhunt42940 Рік тому +2

      @@BusinessWolf1 Stop watching hustle pron. Rust is very different from JavaScript.

  • @brookswashere3400
    @brookswashere3400 Рік тому

    I get imposter syndrome intermittently. It’s even more so now with all this AI tools. I feel like I’m regressing out on things if I don’t work new tools every chance I get.

  • @andrewdunbar828
    @andrewdunbar828 Рік тому

    doing anything are painful

  • @aftalavera
    @aftalavera Рік тому

    DR of technology. I love it!

  • @joshuaworman4022
    @joshuaworman4022 Рік тому +1

    hate to be a negative nancy but it does worry me that it is in some sense required either directly or passively that you have to be a workaholic as a programmer to stay relevant. feels like if that is a real world expectation then the employers should be paying for that learning process. because otherwise that is juse devaluing your work value cuz that training is work you are not getting payed for. and im sorry but i view workaholism to be unhealthy so if this is the case we as a worker class are letting an unhealthy work environment be imposed on us.

  • @stevenismart
    @stevenismart Рік тому +1

    Just don't be the guy who gets rewarded for your hard work with more work. Move jobs every few years or do your own startup

  • @akshay-kumar-007
    @akshay-kumar-007 Рік тому +2

    Hi Mr. Primeagen. Switching company for the first time and the imposter syndrome is really kicking in hard. I'm going to work on a high spike, realtime system and don't know if I have what it takes to succeed, let alone contribute there.
    Any advice for new onboarding?

    • @Prod-23
      @Prod-23 Рік тому +1

      Ask every question that comes to mind. Don't think appearing to know the answer already is better than asking it ...

    • @Prod-23
      @Prod-23 Рік тому +5

      Remember that "I don't know, I'll find out" IS an answer ...

    • @akshay-kumar-007
      @akshay-kumar-007 Рік тому +1

      @@Prod-23 Thanks for the advice

    • @BusinessWolf1
      @BusinessWolf1 Рік тому

      what it takes to succeed is the ability to learn and nothing else

  • @AnonymousAccount514
    @AnonymousAccount514 10 місяців тому

    If you’ve been a working programmer for five years, any skills that are atrophy, you don’t need

  • @joinpsye7045
    @joinpsye7045 Рік тому

    amazing advice!!!!

  • @GeorgeDicu-hs5yp
    @GeorgeDicu-hs5yp Рік тому

    Can you recomend a good datastructure training, language agnostic?

    • @ThePrimeTimeagen
      @ThePrimeTimeagen  Рік тому +2

      That is called discrete math, it's a lot of proofs and stuff, just do a language based one. You can simply take any concept and move it to another language

  • @pigmalion3433
    @pigmalion3433 Рік тому

    Welcome to costco, i love you.

    • @willi1978
      @willi1978 Рік тому

      Hehe what does it mean?

  • @Ring0--
    @Ring0-- Рік тому

    Prime has never worked mission critical - one time events.
    SW development usually has the privilege of create/destroy without consequence.
    Sometimes it Matters.

    • @ThePrimeTimeagen
      @ThePrimeTimeagen  Рік тому

      umm... i didn't realize you knew my career so well, yet some how is completely wrong.
      thank you though for the comment

    • @Ring0--
      @Ring0-- Рік тому

      @@ThePrimeTimeagen You left Netflix. Now it sucks.

    • @hfspace
      @hfspace Рік тому

      Lol, so you are basically ignoring his advice on GREENFIELD PROJECTS, which essentially tells the opposite of what you are claiming.

  • @defnlife1683
    @defnlife1683 Рік тому

    Impostor syndrome is such an American thing. You never hear it in other countries. We just call it whining or drowning in a glass of water.

  • @mohamed79303
    @mohamed79303 Рік тому

    the moment you think you have imposter syndrome you stop having imposter syndrome

    • @mohamed79303
      @mohamed79303 Рік тому

      you start having dunning-krueger effect

    • @mohamed79303
      @mohamed79303 Рік тому

      dunning-krueger effect being that you really think you're not an actual imposter and it's just a syndrome

    • @mohamed79303
      @mohamed79303 Рік тому

      but the moment you think you have dunning-krueger effect you start having imposter syndrome (until you think you have imposter syndrome)

  • @linoalexanderpineda8350
    @linoalexanderpineda8350 Рік тому +1

    Blazingly Fast !!!! B)

  • @licensetodraw
    @licensetodraw Рік тому

    What's green field?

    • @zoltankerezsi2810
      @zoltankerezsi2810 Рік тому

      New project without any legacy code, so you can make all the decisions how you wanna implement it

  • @Sykone4717
    @Sykone4717 Рік тому

    Just work 24 hours a day guys. That's totally realistic.

  • @yogxoth1959
    @yogxoth1959 Рік тому

    This could have been a good video but it was impossible to focus with all the alerts going off.

  • @johanlarsson9805
    @johanlarsson9805 Рік тому +1

    Why is SWE in the title? He's swedish? Swedes are good at imposter symdrom?

  • @martinjose9331
    @martinjose9331 Рік тому

    When I was working at an agency, they asked me to do backend for a small feature for a client. I said "No, I just want to focus on my front end skills and be as better as I can in that field", after that I got called all to the time to help other team members when they got stuck with CSS or Javascript, and also I had to lead a few projects that where mainly front end.
    So this is what confuses me, should I learn a new tech even if it doesn't have too much to do with the roles I want in the future or should I focus 100% on front end and learn as much as I can?

  • @_nosma
    @_nosma 7 місяців тому

    i love you

  • @StdDev99
    @StdDev99 Рік тому

    That's not true at all. The impostor syndrome is actually good for you. Because you'll be too embarrassed to ask questions so you'll actually do your homework and read the manual. If you're overconfident, you'll just be lazy and never learn anything

  • @BusinessWolf1
    @BusinessWolf1 Рік тому

    So shiny object syndrome is the secret to defeating impostor syndrome.

  • @vitalyl1327
    @vitalyl1327 Рік тому +6

    Unpopular opinion: the vast majority of people who believe they experience this "impostor syndrome" are impostors indeed, and they're right to feel inadequate. Painting it as an "impostor syndrome" is their coping, nothing else.

    • @julienarpin5745
      @julienarpin5745 Рік тому +1

      It’s also a cope for those of us that are decent at coding but get by on other skills such as logical reasoning and teamwork to say we can trust in our DK to fake it til we make it. But activity is key, that’s for sure.

    • @ChillAutos
      @ChillAutos Рік тому +3

      Found the guy on the DK side.

    • @samuelmorkbednarzkepler
      @samuelmorkbednarzkepler Рік тому

      In my experience devs tend to undervalue themselves rather than overvalue themselves. The worst devs I met where the once who confindently presented themselves as if they never experienced imposter syndrome. As socrates said "all I know is that I know nothing." The best devs I know are also the devs that are the most aware of how little they actually know

    • @vitalyl1327
      @vitalyl1327 Рік тому

      @@ChillAutos keep coping, this is all you have

    • @vitalyl1327
      @vitalyl1327 Рік тому

      @@samuelmorkbednarzkepler a healthy understanding of your limits of knowledge do not result in doubt and fear of inadequacy. Any decent engineer or scientist knows to routinely check their biases and limitations.
      It is those who lack systematic knowledge and rigourous training in scientific method who experience "impostor syndrome", and more often than not quite rightfully so.

  • @developerdeveloper67
    @developerdeveloper67 Рік тому +1

    Real talk: if you have imposter syndrome, you probably are kinda of an impostor. You should try to learn and improve your programming knowledge and skills.

  • @pankaj-kalra
    @pankaj-kalra Рік тому

    got goosebumps at the end @theprimetime

  • @liquidcode1704
    @liquidcode1704 Рік тому

    whats the opposite of imposter syndrome? where we've done this shit for years and are as good as developers as the leads, but dont have that magical x-many years on a resume, so we're highly underpaid and under utilized, whats that called