Not everyone who doubts themselves is suffering from impostor syndrome. Sometimes the real problem lies in the strategy they've chosen, and that's exactly why it's so important to learn to tell the difference.
I read a lot of articles here on DEV about burnout, impostor syndrome, and similar topics. I thought I'd add my own perspective because I have the feeling that some advice, often given with great confidence, can actually do more harm than good. The symptoms may be real, but the diagnosis can still be wrong.
Today I'd like to share my somewhat "engineering" approach to personal growth. Maybe it will help some of you. Because "just keep going" or "work harder" isn't always the right answer.
Impostor Syndrome
I do experience impostor syndrome.
And don't get me wrong. I generally have pretty high self-esteem, and I believe I've achieved quite a lot in different areas of my life. That doesn't stop me from doubting myself from time to time.
Here's an example from just the past few days.
I published an article about building an AI agent in around 80 lines of code, and it sparked an amazing discussion. I was genuinely proud of it. Even better, I got invited to speak about it at the AI Coding Summit! (By the way, if you'd like to support me, you can like my LinkedIn post and claim a badge that gives you access to half of the conference for free!)
Overall, I genuinely believe the topic is a great fit for a conference like this. What I really wanted was to see my face appear on the conference website, because I always have this feeling that once the organizers publish the speaker page, everything is basically official and they're unlikely to remove me afterward. 😅
Well... it took them exactly one day.
And I swear that by the end of that day, my brain had already come up with an entirely different explanation:
"What if they read my blog and realized how stupid my articles are? What if they email me saying: 'Sylwia, we've gone through your posts, and unfortunately we've decided to remove you from the conference. It's obvious you have no idea what you're talking about. We've figured you out, you fraud!'"
Reading this now, it sounds completely ridiculous. But I believed it. Never mind that my articles regularly appear in developer newsletters or receive lots of positive feedback. My brain had already written its own story.
Here's another example.
Once, an organizer described the speakers at a conference as "amazing international speakers." Instead of feeling proud, my first thought was: "Amazing international speakers... and Sylwia." After all, I'm just a software developer from Gdańsk. 😅
This is exactly what psychologists describe as impostor syndrome: despite objective achievements and external validation, you still feel like you don't really deserve your place, and sooner or later everyone else will discover that you're a fraud.
I'm not even going to dive into the psychology behind it today. Maybe that's a topic for another article.
But Not Every Doubt Is Impostor Syndrome
Here's the important part. Not every doubt you have automatically means you're experiencing impostor syndrome.
There are also areas where I'm genuinely... bad. Take running.
I'm an absolutely terrible runner. My times are objectively awful. So awful that I'd rather not even share them. 😄 I'm fully aware of it. I'd probably lose a race against a five-year-old, not to mention the fact that I don't have an ACL in either knee thanks to my old judo days.
Now imagine someone giving me this advice: "Come on, you just have impostor syndrome! Keep running more, train harder, and one day you'll become Poland's marathon champion."
You can immediately tell how absurd that sounds. That advice wouldn't help me in the slightest.
And yet, very similar advice is often given to people who are learning programming or have been unsuccessfully looking for a job for months.
You've been working incredibly hard without seeing results and you're starting to feel burned out? "It's just impostor syndrome. Don't worry. Work harder. Keep going. Just a little longer."
You've been writing blog posts and nobody reads them? "It's just impostor syndrome. Don't worry. Keep publishing consistently. The results will eventually come."
Personally, I think this kind of advice can actually be harmful.
Think Like an Engineer
Let's go back to my running example. Why am I such a bad runner? Maybe I only started recently and my expectations are unrealistic. Maybe I'm making fundamental mistakes in training. Maybe I'm wearing the wrong shoes. Maybe I simply don't have much natural talent for running, and I'd enjoy a different sport much more.
Or maybe I should just run for fun instead of chasing unrealistic goals.
The same way of thinking applies almost everywhere else. Have you sent hundreds of CVs without getting interviews? Maybe it's worth asking an HR specialist to review your resume. Maybe the market is simply terrible right now. Maybe you're missing one specific skill that's relatively easy to learn.
Maybe you're applying only for fully remote positions. Or maybe you're aiming exclusively at FAANG companies, while you'd have much better chances at smaller organizations.
Are you writing blog posts that nobody reads? Maybe your titles could be stronger. Maybe you should spend more time interacting with the community, learning from other people while also increasing your own visibility. Maybe another platform would suit you better. For example, I get fantastic engagement and wonderful discussions here on DEV, while my LinkedIn posts usually perform much worse. 😄
Debug Your Strategy, Not Just Your Confidence
That's what I mean by an "engineering" approach to personal growth. Every few months, try looking at your efforts critically, without ego, as if your own development were someone else's project.
Ask yourself: Is the time I'm investing actually producing results? If not, maybe it's worth changing the strategy instead of simply trying harder.
Because maybe your doubts aren't impostor syndrome at all. Maybe they're your brain telling you that your current approach simply isn't working.
Sometimes the answer really is greater confidence and perseverance. But sometimes the answer is changing your strategy. The hard part is learning to tell the difference.
Top comments (116)
Thank you for sharing this post! I have similar reflections after taking up painting recently. I've always believed I don't have talent; however, I've always enjoyed painting. Recently, I started doing it for fun, and I quickly discovered that you can achieve a lot just by practicing and learning different techniques. I may not be able to draw a real-life pencil portrait, but I enjoy playing with watercolors. I'll probably never be a well-known artist, but it's not the point. I still enjoy the process of simply painting. I feel like this is the "change of strategy" you mentioned 🙂
Also, hard to believe you had such undervaluing thoughts about yourself. You always seemed to me to be quite a self-confident and accomplished engineer. I have a feeling that impostor syndrome somehow grows really deep in our nation 😅
Thank you, Klaudia! ❤️ I think my relationship with sports is very similar to your relationship with painting. I enjoy being active, I love the endorphins, but I'll never become a super-fit marathon runner. 😄 Sure, if I invested a huge amount of time and energy into it, I'd probably get better results... but they'd still be far from world-class. And honestly? I don't even want to. I'd much rather exercise for myself, for my health... and for my knees. 😄
As for my impostor syndrome, the funny thing is that you actually have a good intuition. I am generally a very self-confident person. 😄 But those thoughts still appear from time to time. I think it's because people only see the final result. They don't see how much work went into it, how many doubts I had along the way, or how much I had to learn before I got there. 🙂
That's why it's so valuable and important to share articles like the one you just published. When only results are visible, it can seem that success comes naturally to the person on top; that maybe they have talent or a specific personal characteristic that makes them succeed. Such thinking can even stop people from chasing their goals. They do not see that, very often, there's a lot of work and overcoming self-doubt behind the curtain.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! :)
Thank you, Klaudia, that's such a kind thing to say. ❤️
I completely agree. We usually only see the destination, never the road that led there.
I also think it helps to set smaller, more achievable goals instead of trying to plan your entire career from day one. 😄
I still remember my very first performance review as a junior developer. My manager asked me about my long-term career goals, and I honestly replied, "I don't know... my goal was to become a junior developer, and I've just achieved it!" 🤣
He burst out laughing, gave me a high five, and said, "Fair enough... but let's push you a little further." Then he signed me up for a certification course.🤣
Looking back, I'm actually glad I didn't try to map out the next ten years of my career. One small goal at a time worked much better for me. 😊
Ahahah, I love your honesty! 😂 Also, it's a great lesson to take it easy and focus on one thing at a time. I would probably stress my ass out and try to come up with something asap 🙈 Will keep your story in mind :)
This really resonated with me.
I struggle with impostor syndrome from time to time as well. But over the years, I've also had to accept another uncomfortable truth: there are things I'm simply not good at. I've tried, I've worked hard, and sometimes it just wasn't enough.
Looking back, I think the endless "just keep pushing" advice often made me feel worse, not better. Sometimes persistence is exactly what's needed. Other times, the healthiest thing you can do is accept that your strengths lie somewhere else.
I think your own journey illustrates that perfectly. You found the people who connect with your work, and that's far more meaningful than trying to appeal to everyone. Maybe that's what success really looks like—not universal recognition, but finding the place where what you do genuinely matters.
Exactly, Pascal! I especially like your last paragraph. I think that's one of the most important lessons: finding the right place where your work truly resonates with people, instead of trying to appeal to everyone.
And the older I get, the more I realize that our energy is limited. We simply can't be great at everything, so we have to choose wisely where we invest it.
For example, as you can probably tell from the article, I'll never become a super-fit marathon runner. 😄 But that doesn't mean I should just sit on the couch and give up on exercise altogether. It's still worth spending some time every week doing some kind of sport for the sake of my health.
I think it's the same with many other areas of life. Sometimes looking reality in the eye is actually liberating. It helps us stop fighting unwinnable battles and focus on the things where our efforts can truly make a difference.
I completely agree. I think the key distinction is between doing something because it's good for you and expecting it to become your defining strength.
I'm never going to be a great designer, for example. I know that now. But understanding the basics still makes me a better developer because I can collaborate more effectively and appreciate good design when I see it.
Accepting our limits doesn't mean giving up. It just means being intentional about where we expect excellence—and where "good enough" is perfectly enough.
I love that perspective. And you know what? Sometimes it's exactly that mix of skills—being really good at one thing, "good enough" at another, and having at least some understanding of several other areas—that gives us a real advantage.
I once read that many of the biggest breakthroughs happen at the intersection of different fields, where people connect ideas that specialists in a single discipline might never think to combine. That's another great reason not to chase mastery in absolutely everything. Sometimes "good enough" is exactly what you need.
And, after all, we only get one life (at least as far as we know 😄). It's worth actually living it, too, instead of exhausting ourselves in pursuit of some vague, undefined higher purpose.
Exactly! I think you've touched on something really important: depth is valuable, but connections between different areas are often where the unexpected value appears.
Looking back at my own career, I realize that many of the things that helped me the most were not isolated technical skills, but the ability to connect different worlds: development, infrastructure, business needs, user experience, security, and even communication.
I may not be the best specialist in every one of those areas, but having enough understanding to see the bigger picture has often been more useful than being exceptional in only one narrow field.
And I really like your last point. At some stage, the goal shouldn't be to optimize ourselves endlessly. It's about building something meaningful, helping people, staying curious—and still leaving enough energy to actually enjoy the journey. 😄
great take I think. I don't really believe in imposter syndrome, it's more like I don't have enough experience in that domain and need to learn more... just learn over time, take it easy but push yourself to do better, try to kill bad habits slowly & every once in a while - go explore the world
as you said, I think it's ok to know you won't be great at something. we shouldn't be perfect.
Thanks, Anmol! 🙂
I think we're actually saying very similar things. The only place where I'd disagree is the definition of impostor syndrome itself.
In my opinion (and according to psychology), impostor syndrome is specifically when you doubt yourself despite external success and recognition. That's exactly what happened in the examples from my article.
On the other hand, if you're doubting yourself because you genuinely lack experience, are missing a skill, or are working in an unhealthy environment, I don't think that's impostor syndrome at all. Those are real problems, and they deserve different solutions.
And yes, I completely agree with your last point. 🙂 None of us can be great at everything. That's just biology! The real challenge is figuring out where it's worth investing our limited time and energy, and where good enough is already enough.
This really resonated with me because I think a lot of us use "impostor syndrome" as a catch-all explanation for every uncomfortable feeling we have.
What I liked most was the engineering mindset you proposed. If production goes down, we don't just increase the CPU and hope for the best, we debug, inspect, measure, form a hypothesis, and change the approach if necessary. It's funny how rarely we apply that same thinking to ourselves.
I've caught myself doing exactly what you described. Whenever something wasn't working, my first instinct was always "work harder." More hours. More courses. More projects. But looking back, some of my biggest improvements didn't come from working more; they came from changing what I was working on. Sometimes the bottleneck wasn't effort, it was direction.
Your point about asking whether the strategy is producing results also reminded me of something I've been realizing recently. I used to spend evenings making tiny, fun tools just because an idea popped into my head. There was no grand career strategy behind it, I was simply curious. Somewhere along the way I replaced that curiosity with optimization: "Will this help my career? Is this worth the time? Should I be studying something else instead?"
Ironically, I think I learned more from those little passion projects than from constantly trying to optimize every hour of my day.
Maybe that's another question worth asking during those "engineering checkpoints": Have I become more effective, or have I just become better at being busy?
Fantastic article. I have a feeling a lot of people needed this reminder.
Thank you so much for both comments, Aryan! 🙂 I love how many interesting thoughts they contain.
What especially caught my attention was your point about those small side projects. Psychology actually describes this phenomenon quite well: once something starts feeling like an obligation, it often stops being fun, even if we originally loved doing it.
At the same time, I can also understand the opposite situation. If someone is actively looking for a job, for example, optimizing their learning for a while is perfectly reasonable. It's a temporary phase with a very specific goal.
And regarding the "work harder" mindset, I completely agree. It creates the feeling that we'll reach our goal faster, but will we really? It's also a very easy way to burn ourselves out before we ever get there.
That's a great point about psychology. Looking back, I think that's exactly what happened to me. My fun little projects slowly turned into "Would this be good for my portfolio?" and somewhere along the way the joy disappeared.
I also agree that there are seasons where optimizing your learning makes perfect sense, especially during a job search. The trick is remembering that it's a season, not a permanent way of living. Otherwise, even things we once loved can start feeling like obligations.
One more step worth adding to the engineering metaphor: beginners usually can't self-diagnose which category they're in, because they don't have a baseline for what normal struggle looks like.
Part of why is that impostor syndrome is the only case where the feeling contradicts the facts. The others—skill gap, strategy problem, bad environment—are situations where the feeling is accurate and the facts need interpreting. So the tie-breaker isn't introspection, it's external calibration: someone who's seen dozens of people at that stage and can say whether this difficulty is normal. That's what a mentor or an honest manager provides, and what solo learners often lack. It's also the mechanism behind meow.hair's point about needing an honest mirror.
I don't think I fully understand this part. 🙂 We're actually agreeing that impostor syndrome is the case where the feelings contradict the facts: for example, someone has objective success and external validation, yet still believes they don't deserve it.
So I'm not sure where beginners fit into that picture.
Beginners usually don't have that kind of external validation yet. They're still trying to figure things out, improve their skills, and understand whether they're making progress. That's exactly why I argue they often don't have impostor syndrome at all. They need an honest assessment of their progress and sometimes some external calibration.
And there I completely agree with you: a mentor or an experienced manager can be incredibly valuable.
I think we agree more than it reads—I wasn't saying beginners have impostor syndrome, but that they can't rule it out, which is a different problem. Your test works because you have facts to check the feeling against. A beginner has no such comparison, so "this is hard for everyone" and "I'm missing something" feel identical from the inside. Calibration isn't just tracking progress, then—it's what supplies the facts that make your test runnable in the first place. Without it they're stuck at "I feel bad," which is the one state that's consistent with every explanation.
Hi Sylwia,
thanks for this article. I liked it a lot, especially the engineering and debugging the strategy approach. I think this also helps one to get away being emotional about his/her "failures" or unexpected results (a better wording maybe) and create a strong roadmap to achieve better.
but above all, i think we should not forget enjoying.
even if this is developing (yes, we do it professionally and earn from it, but, it is still important to feel the joy, to overcome the heavy impostor syndrome or the failures) or it is just a hobby (in my case flute playing for ex. I am not very good yet, wanna be quite good, but dont pressurize myself for it, at least not much :) . I just like playing...)
Thank you so much, Alptekin! ❤️ That's a really valuable addition. I completely agree. There has to be joy in the process. I actually wanted to include that point in the article, but I eventually decided not to introduce too many ideas at once, or people might lose the main message. 😄
I really believe we should enjoy what we're doing. And, apart from occasional periods when we have to push a bit harder, I don't think we should dedicate all of our free time to self-improvement or run ourselves into the ground.
After all, we only get one life. It's worth living it, too. 🙂
In Czech, we have a lovely song with the line, “When you can’t go on, push harder.” We also have a humorous saying: “If brute force doesn’t work, you’re not using enough of it.” 😄 But I can confirm from my own experience that this approach doesn’t always work. 😅 Sometimes you simply have to change your strategy, exactly as you propose.
I would perhaps add just one thing: We also need to be patient and consistent, because not seeing immediate results doesn’t necessarily mean that our strategy is wrong.
Hahaha, I love those Slavic sayings! 😂 In Poland, we have one that goes, "If you can't get in through the door, climb in through the window," which I think is actually much closer to the message of my article. 😄
And yes, I completely agree about patience and consistency. I just think it's healthy to schedule honest checkpoints every few months. If someone has been working incredibly hard and still isn't seeing any progress, it doesn't necessarily mean they should give up, but it might be time to rethink the strategy.
Sometimes the answer isn't "work harder." Sometimes it's actually "work less, because you're not giving yourself enough time to recover." 🙂
You’re right, patience without honest reflection can easily turn into stubbornness. And yes, that sounds like a very healthy approach.
P.S. I just had an idea: we could combine both sayings: “Instead of reaching for a bigger hammer, buy a ladder!” 🤣
Hahaha, I absolutely love that! 🤣 We should teach that saying to little Slavic kids instead. 😄
Dear Sylwia,
Thank you so much for this article — I consider it a much-needed dose of realism in an era where self-development drowns in abstract, emotional slogans.
The point that resonated with me most was your call to separate the "ego" from the evaluation of our performance. This idea alone is enough to free us from the cycle of self-flagellation, because it teaches us to see our failures as ordinary "data" rather than as a "verdict" on our worth as human beings. Likewise, your warning against hustle culture was spot on: not every stubborn persistence is strength — sometimes it is simply an escape from facing the truth that we are walking the wrong path.
Reading your article opened a door in my mind to an integrative question that might add another dimension to your idea:
Could it be that our inner fear (or what we mistakenly label impostor syndrome) is what leads us to choose the wrong paths in the first place? Sometimes we choose safe, less ambitious paths out of fear of rejection, and when they fail, we assume the solution is simply to "change the path" — while the truth is that we first need to address the roots of that fear. Otherwise, we will reproduce the same failure on every new path we take.
I also reflected on the point about "immediate results." In many deep fields, the fruits may not appear for years. And here lies the real challenge: distinguishing between a path that is wrong and a path that simply requires patience and persistence.
But upon rereading, a deeper angle occurred to me: human beings are, by nature, blind to the results of their own work; we need an honest external mirror to show us the truth of what we are doing. And here lies the cruel paradox — sometimes our failure is not caused by a flawed strategy or personal weakness, but by the "friends" who surround us. The overly encouraging friend deprives us of hearing the truth; the fearful friend steers us toward paths of quiet defeat; and the envious friend distorts how we see our own successes. For that reason, choosing an honest, critically-minded circle may be the most important strategic decision we make before embarking on any project.
In short, your article did not merely hand me an excellent diagnostic tool — it prompted me to reconsider my relationship with my fear, with my patience, and with the people I listen to.
Thank you for this mature, thoughtful piece. I wish you continued impact and creativity.
With sincere appreciation,
🗻🧊😁
Thank you so much for leaving such a thoughtful comment! I really appreciate the time and effort you put into it.
Regarding your point about patience, I completely agree. In fact, I wanted to emphasize exactly that. Even when a goal realistically takes years to achieve, I think we still need to stop every few months and do an honest checkpoint: Am I actually making progress?
Take sports, for example. If your dream is to become a judo champion, of course it will take years. But if, after one or two years of training incredibly hard, you're still losing almost every match, it's probably worth rethinking your strategy. Who knows? Maybe you're actually training too hard and not giving yourself enough time to recover. Or maybe, as difficult as it is to accept, this simply isn't your path. The reality is that not everyone becomes a judo champion.
As for fear, I'm honestly not sure how to respond yet. I need to think about it more. Personally, I've never really struggled with that, but I do see it in people around me. The question I'm asking myself is: are they actually choosing the wrong path because of fear? Or are they choosing a perfectly valid but safer path, even though they're capable of aiming higher? That's a really interesting distinction, and you've definitely given me something to think about.
And regarding friends, I couldn't agree more. There's nothing worse than a "friend" who constantly downplays your achievements instead of helping you see yourself more clearly.
Thanks again for such a thoughtful comment. It genuinely made me reflect beyond what I originally wrote.
This post is so meaningful. Sometimes we need to look at both our mindset and the real evidence in front of us. But that kind of self-awareness is difficult. It takes courage to admit that the problem may be our approach, and some people may spend years without recognizing it. I’m grateful you wrote this and it gave me a much-needed reminder.
Thank you so much! ❤️ I think you're right, it takes a very special kind of courage. Or maybe not even courage, but a shift in perspective. Once we stop tying our self-worth to our work or our achievements, it becomes much easier to look at what we're doing objectively. Then changing direction doesn't feel like admitting defeat. It's simply another engineering decision based on new information. 🙂
The 1 thing that always stays true. Identify the bottleneck and optimize to improve the pipeline. Take running, no ACLs, means you'd probably do better with supports for your knees, not because that's a magic cure, but because it's an optimization that helps structural stability. Take job hunting, if you're a jack of all trades, you're never a perfect fit and while impressive, once cut with a cookie cutter, that overflow is a liability to a company, not added benefit, so pick a niche and target your resume to it. For burnout, if you're overworked, find ways to take a breather, smokers take smoke breaks, you can take 5 min to just lay back and close your eyes, to just let your brain reset.
Optimizations are universally good, whether it's applicable to your exact issue, is why it's important to identify a bottleneck first, else it's sub-optimal optimization. cutting 20ms off an API call helps, but it helps alot less than indexing the sql that was causing the 13 second slowdown...
Exactly, I completely agree! 🙂
Although it's funny, because when I was looking for my very first developer job, I did almost the opposite. 😄 Instead of looking for a niche, I kept reading job ads, identifying the skills companies were asking for, and then learning exactly those.
That said, I absolutely agree that having expertise in some niche area, even outside programming, can be a huge advantage. A friend of mine recently landed a job partly because, besides being a good developer, he also speaks German fluently. And, unsurprisingly, German clients really appreciate being able to communicate in their own language. 🙂
I did about the same and as I went on, I just added to the resume, to the point that my Skills list can be a document on it's own. Whereas best thing you can do is to specialize and stick to your specialty. Eg. .NET developer in FinTech for ERP systems. Extremely niche, but that means every job you work is 100% relevant to the next and while it narrows your scope of potential employment, it makes you a prime candidate for any that do fit.
Yeah apparently German Call Center support is a pretty big one. In my country that's pretty much the only 'online jobs' that people seem to find and yes, core requirement is fluent in german, but I guess it pays well?
Hahaha, I don't know about call centers. 😄 My friend is actually starting a software engineering job. The salary isn't anything extraordinary, but in today's job market it's definitely a solid offer. 🙂
Anything beats nothing... As long as they're employed and can pay their bills, it's good
Exactly, especially in today's difficult job market! 🙂 And I think it's a nice example that what helped him get the job wasn't even a technical skill.
1 of my shelved projects was actually a recruitment app, built on that exact principle. You might not always know it, but your specific situation makes you an ideal candidate for a specific position. Even if it's as unconventional as building lego in your spare time, or writing posts on Dev.to, or being able to speak german, or having worked in a very specific niche, on very specific software. The difference to a hiring company is onboarding friction. If you've done the same job, with the same layout, you just slot in, vs a month long learning curve that will likely cause opposing methodologies to clash
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