[elliekelly]

Sometimes I wonder how much of imposter syndrome comes from “knowing” something but being unable to clearly articulate what you know and the underlying information to others.

Like the old exercise where you have to write instructions for making PB&J. I know how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but when I have to explain it, clearly, and in minute detail I’m forced to acknowledge the gaps - the steps my brain just skips over and takes as a given. But PB&J is easy so even when I might struggle with articulating the mechanics of it to someone else I don’t doubt my ability. That changes quickly though as complexity increases.

I’ve baked a lot of bread and I’m intimately familiar with how my bread dough rises differently depending on lighting, the temperature of my house, and even the material I cover the dough with while it proofs. But a lot of that happens without too much active thought - I just kind of know how to adjust my mental math for these factors. I’m not sure I could clearly and succinctly articulate this knowledge to someone else. And even now I’m having imposter syndrome wondering if someone here will tell me it’s clear I have no idea how yeast actually works... and maybe I don’t!

[munchbunny]

Like the old exercise where you have to write instructions for making PB&J. I know how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but when I have to explain it, clearly, and in minute detail I’m forced to acknowledge the gaps - the steps my brain just skips over and takes as a given. But PB&J is easy so even when I might struggle with articulating the mechanics of it to someone else I don’t doubt my ability. That changes quickly though as complexity increases.

That's fundamentally a trap question. It's like when you keep asking "why?" until the answerer runs out of explanations because we've inevitably reduced things to quantum mechanics. I think the exercise is a useful demonstration of why the code you write doesn't necessarily do what you think you wrote, but as an exercise (or, god forbid, an interview question) I don't think it's that useful.

These days, my answer (after the usual contextual questions if this were a PM/dev interview) would be "I would tape a GoPro to my head and record a video of me making PB&J. If there's any ambiguity, I think 99% of people would be able to fill in the blanks."

[ver_ture]

Some information such as the making of a sandwich, is not conductive to be conveyed through text. So the correct answer for me would be, "I would use a different medium to convey the info, like video."

[decompiled_dev]

I think actually teaching people is a great way of getting mastery at something. If you teach people and they get good results you can be confidant you know enough about the subject.

[elliekelly]

Yes! I’ve heard of the “plus-minus-equal” learning concept. You need someone with more knowledge to learn from (your plus), someone at the same knowledge to work through problems with together (your equal), and then someone to teach (your minus) so that you can be sure you’ve truly mastered the material.

[dehrmann]

I agree, but it's something that under-emphasized in education.

[atlgator]

I see the opposite almost exclusively... people that can talk a great game but can't actually write a line of code.

[leocgit]

In my experience these people do not suffer from impostor syndrome. Although I have to admit that it could be a coping mechanism, it sounds more like Dunning-Kruger. I guess there are different symptoms of impostor syndrome. For me the comment of OP definitely resonated a lot. Not being able to express the things you know and don't know clearly blurs the lines for me to accurately value the knowledge I actually do possess or have mastered. :-)

[atlgator]

That's fair. I guess for me OP's description of imposter syndrome seems more like Generalized Anxiety Disorder.