Turning the tide in the battle against imposter syndrome

If you’re not familiar with imposter syndrome, here’s how the British Medical Association defines it:

Imposter syndrome is described as a feeling of inadequacy that persists despite evidence of success.

When I sat down to write this, my goal was to get across that you don’t need to know everything.

And more than that, I wanted to flip that pressure into something positive, something that pushes us toward learning instead of weighing us down. The biggest breakthrough I’ve had in battling imposter syndrome came from reversing the mindset of “I should have known that; why don’t I already know that?” to “I don’t know that—what is it?”

Let’s be honest, though. Imposter syndrome doesn’t care about logic. Even though we know nobody knows everything, the pressure still creeps in. Maybe it’s job demands, or maybe it’s just the sheer speed of tech. The trick is letting learning be part of the process, not some requirement we missed along the way.

When we talk to other developers, we’re not expecting them to know everything. Usually, we’re just tapping into what they know best and genuinely want to learn from them. We forget they gained that knowledge the same way we are—through trying, failing, and figuring things out.

Imposter syndrome doesn’t have to be all bad. In fact, recognizing gaps in our knowledge is an incredible place to start. It means we’re self-aware and can work on these areas. We just need to turn that acknowledgment into action. Everyone learns in different ways and at different paces, and what’s important is taking steps forward with this energy—without letting guilt freeze us in place. Change the mentality from fear of the unknown into excitement to understand & you’ll be flying.

It’s worth remembering that worrying about how much you don’t know, is a much better position than thinking you know it all.

I’ve used this quote in another post but it’s great, sue me.

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” - Albert Einstein

These things aren’t easy, I wanted to share my experience & hopefully this can help ease someone elses :)