The Power of Not Knowing
Tags: productivity, career
Published: 2020-06-23 15:53:05

As I completed my study on psychology, I found various, interesting insights about knowing and not knowing things. There are things, that we know. There are things, that we don't know. Then there are things, we know that we don't know. Do you understand? If you don't, read the previous lines again, slowly.

There are a lot of things that we know, we have learnt from books, from people, from the experiences we have lived. But there are also, a huge amount of information that we don't know. For example, I found this tweet once on my timeline and I have never stared at an image for more than 30 seconds unless there is something. This image explains the gist.

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<img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYIIYuLXgAAauo8?format=png" />
<h6><a href="https://twitter.com/_marcba/status/1261580768733736961" target="_blank">Courtesy of this tweet</a></h6>
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Because we don't know a lot of things, We feel anxious in certain situations or scenarios. Looking at competitors in a competition, seeing a friend's Resume/CV, it all makes us uncomfortable. No, I am talking about the concept of "jealousy". It is when we see that they know X,Y,Z skills which we don't know/have. (Even though you know A,B,C skills!)

This phenomena is common in IT industry. And we all know, what it's called.

**The Imposter Syndrome**

Let's discuss for a minute, what it is defined as.

> It is psychological pattern in which one doubts one's accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud".

I will be honest. I have found that my nature makes me competitive, sometimes. I used to think that I need to learn everything in order to become a web developer. I learnt HTML/CSS/JS numerous times to get my concepts, crystal clear. I learnt Wordpress properly because few years back, it was very popular (It still is, maybe). I mastered PWA development because it seemed like there the wave was shifting. Even after doing all this, I still consider myself unfit for jobs, after seeing the minimum requirements in job posting sites. And then, I find that people are still making good money by just creating simple websites using templates. 🤷

Now, I take the competitive nature positively as motivation to do things. But it used to affect me as well. ‍

There are a lot of well-written articles on the web regarding how to deal with imposter syndrome and from what all I have read and personal experience, I find the following points, actually effective:-

### How to deal with Imposter Syndrome

1. **By looking back at what I have made.** Everyone builds something. It could be a painting, a great dish or a webapp (even the todo one). This helps remind my brain that I am capable of things and If I can do this, I can do much more. I have the potential.
2. **By taking inspiration.** This could be one of the best ways to deal with it as well. Inspire and use what others have built from.
3.  **By realizing that you have your own life.** You can either stress about it or do something about it. Remember, Life's a marathon and not a race.

Do you have something you would add here? Let me know about it.

Always remember, You are responsible for yourself and your knowledge. It depends on you if you can take Imposter Syndrome as a problem or as a great strength because in the latter, You can say you are much more aware about yourself. 

And this is what the power of not knowing is.

Stay safe and take care.

-VD